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Externing

I began my internship (really called an "externship") today at a local doctor's office. I thought that I would be nervous and clumsy, that I would annoy my coworkers with mistake after mistake. It didn't happen, though. In fact, the majority of the day, I filed patient records or answered phone calls or entered electronic medical records. I got to know my coworkers a little. They're nice. Besides the doctor, there is only one other male, and the other interns-- there are two of them from other colleges-- are both younger than me. In fact, both thought I was their age. I could have thought this a compliment, until one girl said it was because I don't act thirty-two. The office probably doesn't see many thirty-two year-old interns, either.

All in all, I think I'll value my experience at this clinic. If nothing else, it will help me compare health care to education. I look forward to learning more, and hopefully seeing whether medical school is in my future. As it stands, I am definitely returning to teach next year. I told my principal that my thoughts about leaving were due to the "pull" factors of what I experienced in Haiti, and not any "push" factors in my current job. I truly appreciate my job as a teacher, and I look forward to another year. I simply need to know whether work in Haiti or the Sudan is in my future.

For now, then, a future in medicine is still on the table, but pushed aside.

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