Sunday, July 25, 2010

The Hazards of Making Friends in Residency

Andy has always told me that I need to meet more people and socialize more. Personally, I'm pretty happy with having a small social circle. However, every once in a while I make the effort to expand the circle. Last summer, Grand Forks got a new OB fellow, and Andy forced me to talk to him and his wife, Wendy. As it turns out, Wendy and I became friends and she made the first year of residency much easier. She had already been through it and was able to lend some much needed perspective and advice. I, on the other hand, told her about the Sioux Kids Club, North Dakota winters, and Happy Harry's. It was a good relationship. To add even more benefits, we vented about our living arrangements to each other, our kids played together, and we spent more than our fair share of time avoiding all the things we needed to get done by chatting with each other.

The end of July also meant the end of Eric's year as a fellow. Today Eric, Wendy, and their boys moved to Kansas for Eric to start practice. It has been a sad day. Meg sat down on the ground and declared that she didn't want them to go. Joseph cried, and that set the rest of us off. But in the end, they had to get in the car and start the long drive. It has been an odd day without them around. Nico has looked for them more than once, and Meg was sitting on the step at their house looking a little lost. I bought a new comforter set as inspiration to clean my bedroom...just to give me something to do.

While I realize that Kansas isn't the end of the earth, it is far enough away that walking over to chat for a few minutes is no longer going to happen. I guess that's why they have Skype!

I told Andy a bit ago that this is precisely why I don't like to meet new people. There are some that you are sorry you met, and some that you really enjoy, and some that you really treasure. It stinks when they have to move.

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