How to keep in touch with family and friends

[DatBass]

1. Do you have any friends back home you keep in touch with? High School, College?
2. Do you go and visit when you can?
3. Is it possible to for example if I was in a school in NY would I be able to come to Texas to visit friends after an exam for a weekend? If so, when do I leave? The day I finish the exam and have a flight out 3 hours later?
4. Skype, Text, Snapchat (I do that frequently since it's a quick picture and text so they don't forget how I look lol).

My only fear in medical school is losing my friends back home that I've made, these are friends I'd like to keep for a lifetime and I would like to know what do you do to keep in touch with your friends back home if you go to a school out of state. Flights aren't cheap but I'd do anything for them.

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[TheShowGoesOn]

If you can't maintain friendships or text/skype during med school, it may not be for you.

Of course you can use your phone and go home when you have time off classes.

 

[Promethean]

Facebook. It is how my mom knows that I am alive and well.

You will lose touch with people, as you each go on to have other adventures and get to know other people along the way. To a certain extent, this distance is necessary to make room for new experiences and connections to form. Don't get so hung up on what (and who) you know now that you stagnate. Enjoy the experiences you have with them now and be ready to cherish those memories when they are gone... while making new ones with someone else.

You can always reconnect. You can think of someone that you used to spend more time with and write them an email, or even a real letter or card. Those little gestures will mean more and more as time goes by. Maybe you will go back to the place you started, and you will find that some parts will be as you remember, and others will have changed beyond recognition. Maybe you will never quite circle back and you will always be acquiring new friends as you go along.

Whatever is important to you, you will find time for it. If they really are lifelong friends, you may not see them too often during the next few years, but when you do reconvene, you will both have so much to share.

 

[I'mJustCurious]

1. I'm sure you can call your family and friends whenever you are taking a break from studying.
2. I heard some student don't live near school so they will have to travel a few hours from school back home and still do fine in med school
3. I also heard that some people have to limit watching movies weekly so traveling to visit friends is a maybe..
4. Yes you can.. when you're done studying

The thing about being a doctor is that you are going to have to sacrifice a lot so hopefully your friends and family will respect that you can't see them often but you can text/call/skype them as much as you can when you are not busy.

 

[DopaDO]

I talk to about 30 of my closest friends every single day using Google hangouts. Sometimes I won't check my messages for a couple hours and I'll see 1000+ new messages!

 

[j4pac]

1. Do you have any friends back home you keep in touch with? High School, College?
2. Do you go and visit when you can?
3. Is it possible to for example if I was in a school in NY would I be able to come to Texas to visit friends after an exam for a weekend? If so, when do I leave? The day I finish the exam and have a flight out 3 hours later?
4. Skype, Text, Snapchat (I do that frequently since it's a quick picture and text so they don't forget how I look lol).

My only fear in medical school is losing my friends back home that I've made, these are friends I'd like to keep for a lifetime and I would like to know what do you do to keep in touch with your friends back home if you go to a school out of state. Flights aren't cheap but I'd do anything for them.

1. I kept in touch with a few of my undergrad friends...but it was on about a monthly basis. I called my parents on about a weekly basis. I kept in touch with the my high school friends rarely...and still do today. You make new friends in medical school.

2. I visited family that was about 3-4 hours away once every 3-4 months. Once I became involved in a long distance relationship with my now wife, who then lived 4-5 hours away, I would visit her once every 2 months or so. She primarily visited me.

3. Traveling cross country is very difficult in medical school. It can be done but you really have to pick your spots. It would be better for your friends to visit you.

4. I hate modern communication. It feels very impersonal to me. I either talk on the phone or visit people in person. Otherwise...I will just rarely communicate with the person.

 

[DatBass]

Thank you guys for your input and @TheShowGoesOn how does the "time off classes" work? Do you mean time off like vacations, holidays? I'd like to know more about exams because at the end of each exam I'd like to go back to Texas and visit friends. How frequent are the exams and when are they usually taken? If it's done on Friday is it worth time wise spending money to catch a flight just to visit family and then go back on Sunday?

 

[karling]

Thank you guys for your input and @TheShowGoesOn how does the "time off classes" work? Do you mean time off like vacations, holidays? I'd like to know more about exams because at the end of each exam I'd like to go back to Texas and visit friends. How frequent are the exams and when are they usually taken? If it's done on Friday is it worth time wise spending money to catch a flight just to visit family and then go back on Sunday?

All of this is entirely dependent on which school you go to. Some have weekly exams. For example, I know AZCOM has exams every Monday morning. So flying home for the weekend probably would be a bad idea. Other schools have exams in blocks. So you'd have larger exams, but they would happen every few weeks.

Go to your school's website and look up their pre-clinical curriculum. Try to find a schedule for MS1 on there. It'll give you an idea of how often exams and what day of the week they are usually administered.

 

[barunling]

I'm sure you can call your family and friends whenever you are taking a break from studying.

 

[TheShowGoesOn]

@DatBass , what he/she (@karling) said

 

[cliquesh]

Yea, I pretty much have zero close friends anymore.

 

[MelissaBell]

I use Vissenger.com to send video messages to friends and family via email. Because I can record and send the videos on my own time, it works with my hectic schedule!! I also get to keep replies all in one place.

 

[CarlosOca]

I use Vissenger.com to send video messages to friends and family via email. Because I can record and send the videos on my own time, it works with my hectic schedule!! I also get to keep replies all in one place.

Melissa looks easy (and FREE). I'll check it out.

 

[ATPsynthase123]

1. I kept in touch with a few of my undergrad friends...but it was on about a monthly basis. I called my parents on about a weekly basis. I kept in touch with the my high school friends rarely...and still do today. You make new friends in medical school.

2. I visited family that was about 3-4 hours away once every 3-4 months. Once I became involved in a long distance relationship with my now wife, who then lived 4-5 hours away, I would visit her once every 2 months or so. She primarily visited me.

3. Traveling cross country is very difficult in medical school. It can be done but you really have to pick your spots. It would be better for your friends to visit you.

4. I hate modern communication. It feels very impersonal to me. I either talk on the phone or visit people in person. Otherwise...I will just rarely communicate with the person.

So how feasible would it be to go home on the weekends when the school is around 2-3 hours away? I recently proposed and for financial reasons we won't be able to get married until my second or third year of medical school (assuming I start next fall).

She can't move with me because she recently took a job in town and her religious parents heads would explode if we moved in together. So essentially this puts either me driving home a couple weekends a month and her visiting me and equal amount. Is this scenario possible given the MS1 and 2 curriculum?


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[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Try keeping in contact with family/friends from the other side of the world with no phone service and ****ty Internet.

It's not hard. You just make time. When you get a break, send a text or make a call. Send a Facebook message. Call your family on your way to/from class. I was a day and a half ahead of my wife and kids, so I'd Facebook my wife when I was on the mid watch and had nothing going on, or I'd call from the flight deck in port using FaceTime audio. I'm actually on duty now and just FaceTimed my wife and daughter to say good night before they go to bed.

Time management. It will serve you well.

 

[DetectiveAlonzo]

Lol useriousbro?

You call them or text them. As soon as you feel you can't engage in convo anymore.. you tell you gotta study and go do it.

Jesus christ.

 

[DetectiveAlonzo]

So how feasible would it be to go home on the weekends when the school is around 2-3 hours away? I recently proposed and for financial reasons we won't be able to get married until my second or third year of medical school (assuming I start next fall).

She can't move with me because she recently took a job in town and her religious parents heads would explode if we moved in together. So essentially this puts either me driving home a couple weekends a month and her visiting me and equal amount. Is this scenario possible given the MS1 and 2 curriculum?


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It'd be better for her to move in with you fam.

A few couples in our class cut the long distance deal off in the first few weeks due to the stresses that occur because of med school.

ymmv.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

It'd be better for her to move in with you fam.

A few couples in our class cut the long distance deal off in the first few weeks due to the stresses that occur because of med school.

ymmv.

Like, they broke up? Or just found a way to be in the same area?

 

[DetectiveAlonzo]

Like, they broke up? Or just found a way to be in the same area?

Broke up. The only reason I know is because girls have a huge habit of proclaiming their relationship status on facebook... then I proceed to block them or hide their notifications since all they post are sad songs or memes about distrust and love and sadness and yadda yadda yadda.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Broke up. The only reason I know is because girls have a huge habit of proclaiming their relationship status on facebook... then I proceed to block them or hide their notifications since all they post are sad songs or memes about distrust and love and sadness and yadda yadda yadda.

Hopefully they weren't married. If the stress of school is enough to break you up, you probably shouldn't be together.

 

[DetectiveAlonzo]

Hopefully they weren't married. If the stress of school is enough to break you up, you probably shouldn't be together.

Relationships are distractions unless you find the right one.

Tinder all the way. #Classybutnasty

 

[Peach Newport]

As one of our professors always says...

"dump your girlfriend, divorce your wife, sell your kids, and tell your family you'll see them in a few years. You're in med school now!"

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

As one of our professors always says...

"dump your girlfriend, divorce your wife, sell your kids, and tell your family you'll see them in a few years. You're in med school now!"

Or it's just school. No need to be so dramatic. I do like that he mentioned girlfriend and wife together lol.