The biggest and finalest final

If it weren't for the pesky re-take I have to do in a few weeks, today could have been my last exam of medical school. It was the biggest, most comprehensive, and most terrifying exam of them all - the Medicine OSCE* (incorporating elderly care and mental health and anything at all that's not surgery, obstetrics, gynaecology and paediatrics). The one that if you fail, you can't work as a doctor for another year.

Today I wore the shirt that I wore to my interview to get into medical school 7 1/2 years ago, in 2004. It felt appropriately full circle. And if it was lucky then, it could be lucky now (though it was slightly on the tighter side now than then!). 

 

* OSCE = observed structured clinical examination. Big scary practical exam where you pretend to be a doctor, to prove you can. In a too short space of time, repeated many times over for half a day. The stuff of nightmares.