A friend of mine read my blog a couple of days ago, and had a few things to say. Apparently I come off as unbearably gloomy, and also, I give the impression that I hate medical students, and doctors. I portray them, he said, as arrogant, self absorbed jerks. And also, I never write, he says, about what is happening in my life, but only about what I am thinking.
So this post is in the nature of a disclaimer. Which is actually pretty pointless, but I have some holidays and an exam free two weeks, which translates to an ocean of time I can waste.
Firstly, I would like to say, I do not dig up corpses and feast on their hearts.
[But I am not against a succulent liver or two :)]
I like puppies with stumpy tails, and ice cream, and sunshine.
I do not worship Satan.
I have a lot of things I should be thankful for: parents who love me; A wonderful sister; A grandma I adore; And the cutest, blackest, boisterous-est dog with the pinkest tongue.
So why, you ask, are my posts so very depressing?
The thing is I write only about things I know, or see, or feel. And the place I go to everyday happens to be involved with a lot of human misery. Perhaps this tends to color my writing a wee bit.
The person that writes these posts is only one side of me.
I could say other things. But I’m just going to repeat what someone said, much more eloquently than I ever could, some of my favorite lines from all of literature:
Preguntaréis por qué su poesía
No nos habla del sueño, de las hojas,
De los grandes volcanes de su país natal?
Venid a ver la sangre por las calles.
Venid a ver
la sangre por las calles,
Venid a ver la sangre
por las calles!
From ‘Explico algunas cosas’, from Tercera Residencia.
[I hope this satisfies you, A, old boy. And I hope you’ve read this, Sen. You too, Div. And I refuse to believe that I ever could make you feel under-read, or intellectually inferior.]
Regarding Medical students, and doctors, I do not intend to make them appear that way. Like all people, some of them are arrogant, and self absorbed, and some are not. Take for example, me, a reasonably typical specimen of the Medical Student. I’m about the most self deprecating person you could ever meet!
[A, I hope this assuages the dent in your ego my posts made!!!]
About the last point, one of the things I like most about blogging is the relative anonymity of the whole thing. Of the five people or so who’ve read my blog, I’m sure at least three do not know who I am. I revel in my own obscurity. Also, my life is not very interesting! So I post things that interest me, most of which, sadly, is in my head.
So there.
So this post is in the nature of a disclaimer. Which is actually pretty pointless, but I have some holidays and an exam free two weeks, which translates to an ocean of time I can waste.
Firstly, I would like to say, I do not dig up corpses and feast on their hearts.
[But I am not against a succulent liver or two :)]
I like puppies with stumpy tails, and ice cream, and sunshine.
I do not worship Satan.
I have a lot of things I should be thankful for: parents who love me; A wonderful sister; A grandma I adore; And the cutest, blackest, boisterous-est dog with the pinkest tongue.
So why, you ask, are my posts so very depressing?
The thing is I write only about things I know, or see, or feel. And the place I go to everyday happens to be involved with a lot of human misery. Perhaps this tends to color my writing a wee bit.
The person that writes these posts is only one side of me.
I could say other things. But I’m just going to repeat what someone said, much more eloquently than I ever could, some of my favorite lines from all of literature:
Preguntaréis por qué su poesía
No nos habla del sueño, de las hojas,
De los grandes volcanes de su país natal?
Venid a ver la sangre por las calles.
Venid a ver
la sangre por las calles,
Venid a ver la sangre
por las calles!
From ‘Explico algunas cosas’, from Tercera Residencia.
[I hope this satisfies you, A, old boy. And I hope you’ve read this, Sen. You too, Div. And I refuse to believe that I ever could make you feel under-read, or intellectually inferior.]
Regarding Medical students, and doctors, I do not intend to make them appear that way. Like all people, some of them are arrogant, and self absorbed, and some are not. Take for example, me, a reasonably typical specimen of the Medical Student. I’m about the most self deprecating person you could ever meet!
[A, I hope this assuages the dent in your ego my posts made!!!]
About the last point, one of the things I like most about blogging is the relative anonymity of the whole thing. Of the five people or so who’ve read my blog, I’m sure at least three do not know who I am. I revel in my own obscurity. Also, my life is not very interesting! So I post things that interest me, most of which, sadly, is in my head.
So there.
8 comments:
The lines quoted are from " I'm explaining a Few Things" By Pablo Neruda, one of my favourite poets.
They mean:
"And you will ask why doesn't his poetry
speak of dreams, and of leaves,
and of the great volcanoes of his native land?
come and see the blood in the streets.
come and see
the blood in the streets.
come and see the blood
in the streets!"
He was writing about the spanish civil war, and I am not melodramatic enough to claim that this exactly explains what I want to say, but I think it goes close.
consider that i have considered...
And I am using that phrase pretty often now, you know.
a. Don't listen to him, there are things to say about his blog as well.
b. Everybody's self-absorbed. Some just pretend not to be so. But everybody's self absorbed. Period.
c. You're the average med stud? shudder shudder
d. "Firstly, I would like to say, I do not dig up corpses and feast on their hearts.
[But I am not against a succulent liver or two :)]"
hehe
Diviani:
a. A is a very old friend who doesnt have a blog to say things about. Sadly. Or I would've.
b.True.
c. 'shudder shudder'??? Hey! Whats that s'posed to mean?
d. ;)
No, its just that old norse myths and nabokov seem a rather disconcerting concoction, especially if they happen to be swirling inside the cranium of the guy whose scalpel one is under.
By the by, any stray chance of you planning to be a neurosurgeon?
Actually, there's a very good chance of that, if things go right! Neurology fascinates me.
And why would you think that an appreciation of literature is a handicap? Like I said, different parts of me. There's a very famous surgeon who has tchaikovsky playing while he operates.
And ive never operated, but i've stood in on a few, and operating is like flying a spaceship through a gap in a hedge. There is no way you can think about anything other than the next step, and what you will do if you encounter something unexpected. so dont worry, the guy who is operating on you is thinking exclusively about you!
By no means do I think that appreciation of lit is a handicap, just that sometimes it makes me wonder when people like you, i.e, med students indulge in it. The wistful what if scenario, you know. If i had chosen that........*sigh* the grass appears greener on the other side, as always.
You are definitely not alone in that. I absolutely love what I'm doing, but I cant help feling sometimes, if only...
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