Things are pretty good at the moment :-)

Dear Blog,

I'm sorry I abandoned you. I have so much to say and yet time - as it always and forever will be - is against me. I've finished O&G, general surgery, paeds and am now on the home-stretch with 4 weeks left of general medicine.

O&G was amazing, but very tiring! I have so much admiration for the registrars who continue to pull through restlessly, day and night. It's an incredibly rewarding speciality and I wish I had the energy to pursue it, but I honestly think that the long hours and exhausting on-call roster would get the better of me. The other thing - more than ever, I've renewed my resolve to work in medical aid work (I'm counting down the years until I'm capable of being able to stand on my own and contribute productively in the field)- and I have a feeling that gaining a fellowship in O&G from here would equip me with more skills that what I would need in a developing world setting. Seems a bit redundant being able to perform IVF and high-tech laparoscopic gynae surgery when what I essentially need to know is how to deliver a baby safely and do an emergency hysterectomy (as a last option to resolve PPH). So I've reset my aspirations and have rechanneled my plans towards becoming an Emergency Physician with a Dip of O&G. I'll write more about it later on, as things progress, and especially during/after my ED term next year, but for now, I'm excited once again. Excited about being in medicine and where it's going to take me. Hip hip hooray!

The other thing I'll mention is how much I enjoyed Paeds! Absolutely loved it and the characters along the way. The Paeds registrar in particular was so enthusiastic and inspiring; her work-ethic really came through and she went out of her way to make sure we (the students) were included in the team.

So 4 weeks left (then 1 week of stuvac and 1 week of exams). I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by! I'm on the homestretch folks! In 6 months I'll be applying for a job; then 6 months after that I will be on my final elective rotation, a few weeks off from finishing. I hope it's come through in this post, but if it hasn't I'll spell it out: I'm really happy, I feel at peace. I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and feel less like an aimless wanderer than I did when I first started almost 3 years ago. I've learnt a thing or two along the way, and I have a sense of direction of where I'd like to go with this knowledge. If you're reading this and you're still at the beginning of the journey: keep at it. It's seemingly long and endless, but oneday you will reach a point where you can not only look back and marvel and how far you've come; but also look ahead and feel that the road ahead isn't as daunting as it seemed when you first started and that there's no where else you'd rather be than where you are at that point.