As I end the second week of my externship, I'm learning more about healthcare. It can be filled with stress at times, and it is complex; but these facts also make it a cooperative field, at least in the context of a small doctor's office. I'm being encouraged more and more to take vital signs and interact with patients, and I'm getting more comfortable in that area. Toward the beginning of the week, a lady started to become upset with me because I was nervous as I took her blood pressure, but this was the low moment of the week. I grew increasingly comfortable and competent as I practiced taking vital signs, and I feel like I'm starting to give almost as much to the office staff in terms of office help and medical assisting than I am taking from them in terms of asking for help or clarification. I'm not there yet, but I hope to be. At the same time, I'm getting to know the other students (there are four in the office at the moment) and the staff. This is turning out to be a meaningful summer.
I read part of a poem recently by one of my favorite poets. It reads: I envy not in any moods The captive void of noble rage The linnet born within the cage That never knew the summer woods. I envy not the beast that takes His license in the field of time Unfetter'd by the sense of crime To whom a conscience never wakes. Nor what may call itself as bles't The heart that never plighted troth But stagnates in the weeds of sloth Nor any want-begotten rest. I hold it true, whate'er befall I feel it, when I sorrow most 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. At base, Tennyson contrasted a life of risk, and consequent pain, with one of security. He sides conclusively with the life of risk, and says he fails to envy those who have faced no hardship. I agree with him; and, for good or ill, his words are just as relevant today as they were in the nineteenth century. Like then, there are those today who choose to live their lives with as little risk as...
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