For instance... I remember on my first day of anatomy lab (so this would have been about 4 days into first semester of med school)... I remember one girl who's locker was by mine running up to a guy classmate, jumping on him, wrapping her legs around him, kissing his hair and saying "I LOVE YOU! I missed you SO much yesterday!!" I sorta didn't think too much of it... because I assumed that certainly they must have known each other before med school started... or perhaps they are both from this city and went to undergrad together... or maybe they were stuck in an elevator together for 29 of the previous 48 hours. Who knows? But then I saw the same girl do nearly the identical jumping-slash-kiss maneuver to another guy a few days later.
The weird thing is that she is certainly not the only one. Probably half of my class acts as if they have been joined at the hip for the past 20 years. I don't know how this immediate friendship status comes about.... perhaps it is alcohol induced. Or maybe its the boot camp phenomenon that happens when young guys join the military and are so traumatized during boot camp that suddenly everyone of their comrades is also their best friend.
I guess I have always been the type of person who is really selective with who I become friends with. In fact, I don't really have many friends. Maybe 8 who I consider really close, another 10-20 who are close acquaintances... and probably most of them have been around for a long time.
Medical people are just weird.
ReplyDeleteI only made one friend in medical school, even though I had more friends than anyone I knew in college. I just had so little in common with my classmates. I still find myself identifying more with my patients than my fellow doctors.
Sounds like everyone is trying to compensate for the stress of medical education. Actually I much prefer your classmate's coping mechanism of shallow effusive affection. Everyone at my med school seemed to compensate by being assholes.
I was part of a click my first 18 months of medical school. I didn't like them very much, and was relieved when clinics started and I finally met some other people and had an excuse not to hang out with them anymore.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, this all means you're normal. (Unless it means you're like me.... in which case LOOK OUT!) You'll find your people. Plus you already have your bf (who's already a DOCTOR) and a house and a dog. You're at a different place in life than a lot of them.
And yes, medical school is just like high school. We even had senior superlatives (I was voted "oldest" which I loooooved). I am not kidding.