The New Zealand Medical Students Association (NZMSA)'s national Conference '09 was this weekend and I had an incredible time. The theme was "The Art of Medicine" and 130 medical students from all around the country came together in Christchurch. For us NZMSA Exec members it was a working weekend so we had a bit of a different experience to the normal conference delegates but regardless, I had a fantastic weekend. I loved getting to know some of the other Exec members better (particularly my roomies!), met heaps of new med students from all around the country, and I found the Conference sessions really interesting and worthwhile, in particular the theme of our personal Wellbeing, as students and in the future as doctors.
Most of all, it was refreshing once again to be able to take a step back and be reminded of the fact that there is a whole world out there, that life isn't limited to the sixteen people in my group who I see for eight hours a day, five days a week, that life isn't limited to this hospital or this med school, and that there is more to life than just studying and "clinical medicine." I met so many incredible doctors who have been able to combine their passions outside of Medicine with their jobs, who haven't been afraid to pave their own way in life, who have used medicine to have the life they want, not allowing medicine to dictate and/or define their lives; doctors who have travelled, who have had families, who have run successful businesses, who have accomplished so much on an international stage all the while being the intelligent, lovely, generous doctors and human beings that they are. Furthermore meeting and getting to know a bunch of similar-minded medical students was so damn refreshing -- life isn't limited to the sixteen people in my group (thank goodness).
I flew home Sunday evening completely exhausted but satisfied. I only had one tutorial on Monday so I took the day off, slept-in, went for a good run during the day when it was still bright and warm(ish), splurged on a perfect smoothie from Reload and rented a few dvds. It turned out to be a very chilled out day, and just what the doctor ordered!
Despite being run off my feet most days with a seemingly endless "to-do" list, despite knowing I'm not doing as well academically, I shudder to imagine what my year would have been like had I not run for NZMSA.
This year I am finding that I have an increasing clarity and confidence in the med student I am, the doctor I am becoming, and the person I want to strive to be.
Live life on purpose, with purpose. That has always been my ethos, and I'm happy that I'm truly doing it justice this year.
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