Multiple people have told me time and time again that they could definitely see me as a Pediatrician. Whenever I used to hear that, I would usually laugh it off and say something like, “Maybe, maybe not. Who knows?” with a shrug. But after this first week in inpatient Pediatrics, I can finally see why people have always told me that they could see a future Pediatrician in me.

I'M FREAKIN' LOVING THIS ROTATION SO FAR!!

From day one of this rotation, I was a little too excited to start it and my excitement hasn't died down since! Having such an AWESOME team to work with this past week only added to my excitement! There wasn't a minute during the week where I wished I were somewhere else other than the hospital; my team was just that much fun to work with. And in regards to the patient population I was serving (newborns to late adolescents), I found myself very inspired and driven to help care for them. Part of the reason I was so driven to help them was because of my inability to stop thinking about the unfairness of the situations that many of these kids were in. They did not deserve to be as sick as they were, especially with such full lives ahead of them. Seeing sick children in general bothered me, but it was especially bothersome when the youngest of them had either serious chronic conditions and/or terminal conditions. Like, what did they do to deserve those gravely unfortunate conditions?? And as for the families of these children, they really deserve kudos for doing their best to keep the child's quality of life as high as possible. I can't even begin to imagine just how hard it must be to care for a chronically ill child.

In addition to thinking about how these kids deserved the best treatment possible in order to continue living out their lives, I found my mind repeatedly wandering off to what my life would possibly look like if I were to decide on becoming a Pediatrician and I must say, I can definitely see myself being perfectly happy in that career path. I don't mind working with children at all, and I actually find myself playing with them as I'm caring for them. I also feel like I tend to get along with the family members of the patients, whether they be parents, siblings, cousins, uncles, aunts, etc. Plus, I believe that a career in Pediatrics would align very well with the various goals and plans I have for my future, especially the primary care aspects of it. But with all this being said, I've only been in this rotation for a week….so it's probably a bit premature to say that I love this specialty, especially with five more weeks to go in it lol. I'm still interested in the field of Ophthalmology but in all honesty, Pediatrics looks like it's starting to become a serious contender….

I'm going to be working inpatient nights this week, so I'll get to have another unique perspective of this specialty. But before starting this night shift, I'm going to be attending a wedding for one of my fraternity brothers over in Phoenix, Arizona, where I'm currently at right now. It's pretty trippy over here y'all. The sky is always blue, there's no grass, there are a bunch of cacti in the city, it's pretty hot, you can see mountains in the distance, and we're in the middle of a freakin' desert. I really feel like I'm on another planet right now…it's hard to believe that I'm still in America. And oh yeah, I'm a whole three hours behind from the East Coast. That really tripped me up yesterday. But I've been having a fantastic time here with old and new friends alike, and am looking forward to this wedding ceremony that will be taking place in a few hours!

Y'all be sure to have a glorious week!

“Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” – John C. Maxwell

– Black Man, M.D.