I am beginning my cross-country journey in exactly one week! I am equal parts thrilled and terrified. Lately, the terror side has been more obvious. More frequent stomach irritation, less sleep, and I think I am more irritable...

The anxiety isn't helped by the amount of stuff that needs doing this week: PACK! (so far I have but one box ready), prepare for the going away celebrations, catch up with friends before I embark, print maps for cross country travels, make sure housing and school documents are all in order...Lots to do!

As an aside, I just finished the book Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science, and I highly recommend it to anyone, especially those of you who are going into the health care field. The topics Gawande covered were both inspiring and frightening. I also started reading When the Air Hits Your Brain: Tales from Neurosurgery. The tag line for the book is, "when the air hits your brain, you ain't never the same." Probably holds true for most interventions, I think. Vertosick paints (in my opinion) a more realistic picture of surgery than Gawande sometimes, the stories he chooses to highlight don't always end with bunnies and rainbows. Patients will die on my watch and that's just part of learning to be a doctor.