My first year of infectious disease (ID) fellowship is almost over. In a few weeks I will be enjoying the Ghanaian sun and eating mangoes. But somehow, I can’t seem to get excited about that because I will be back in the States before I know it. My vacation is only for a couple weeks. The ticket was ridiculously expensive but I figure if I’m paying almost $4 per gallon for petrol then it’s reasonable.
When I get back to the States, I will cut back on expenses to pay off the credit card I put that purchase on. I don’t like carrying balances on my credit cards. My medical student loans are out of deferment. I’m planning on pleading for forbearance (economic hardship) as I do not have the almost $1500/month spare change lying around to start payment on those loans. I’m already paying $500/month towards said loans as it is and it’s a strain!
I will also face a potentially hectic ward month, before I start my “research year”. I can’t wait for second year of infectious diseases fellowship! This will likely be the last “slow year” for many years to come. I’m not going to do bench research. I learnt during undergrad when I worked almost 2 years in a laboratory at Harvard School of Public Health using my molecular biology skills that bench-work was not for me. I’ll be doing chart reviews and interviews with patients with the goal to create policy changes in our department. More on that later, I think. As mentioned in a previous post, I don’t think I’m cut out for academia but we shall see.
Finally, I will have to start the job search for summer 2009. Yikes! I don’t even know where in the USA I want to practice in but I’m going to have to figure that out fast.
HOW ABOUT NY, FOR STARTERS??!