On being the slowest kid in school

Next week we start a new class: Clinical Medicine. For this class we are divided up into small groups and we work with a primary care physician over the next year. An interesting twist to this is that the groups are not assigned by the school.

Friday we got an email announcing that we could select our group starting Monday at 12:30 and that if we hadn't selected a group by Wednesday we would be automatically assigned to one. Attatched was a list of options including the name of the physician and the time of the class.

I didn't recognize any of the names on the list except for Dr. Roe, who went to school with my father. I figured I would choose him since he and my dad got along well together and I thought I would like him as well. I figured most people would just let the computer select their physician for them, since none of us had any way of knowing who these people were. They were after all just names on a page.

So 12:30 Monday found me eating lunch in the lounge. I was a little confused because none of my friends were there and the lounge was pretty empty. About 12:40 they came in and asked me if I had chosen my group yet, since I had forgotten about it I got on the computer and signed on to the page. Out of the original 25 physicians on the list, only 5 were available to choose from 10 minutes into the selection process. I didn't get to be in the group I wanted, which I was a little disappointed about, but I don't really know anything about any of them. I just hope I didn't get an obstetrician.

I was amused by the whole episode. I can't figure it out. Why the rush? How were all these people making this choice? Did they pick based on the time? Or did the randomly pick? I know that once Dr. Roe was gone my choice was pretty random.

It is a little depressing. It just hits home how much I don't really fit in in medical school. It's a Type A world out there.