Post-Holiday Blues (reprise)

I got a lot more response from yesterday’s post than I expected –not in the comments section, but in personal messages and chats both in person and online. It seems that it’s not just me, it’s not just the students in my region, and it’s not just the rural students who are feeling isolated and overwhelmed. Even the city-based students can lose contact with their peers, miss out on social events and have trouble getting to the extra-curricular talks and events. From the friends who call me frequently, to those I chat with online from time-to-time, to those who interact mainly via Facebook, we are all lacking in friendly human contact and suffering from fractured social circles since basically the start of Year 3.

Should this be comforting? Possibly. At least I’m not alone in my aloneness. But I find it more worrying than comforting. Why didn’t they warn us that this would happen? That the close friendships we’d forged during the stressful first and second-year would be torn apart as we were thrown into different rotations and geographical locations for the even more stressful third-year. That the people we’d come to rely on wouldn’t be around to help with homework, make you dinner or give you a hug when you needed it most.

And here I am whining because I’ve been sad and it’s all the School of Medicine’s fault. I think I need a dog. And a hug. What do you need?