Onward

Signout has a new banner today. You might not have noticed--all that's missing is a couple of words, after all. I nevertheless ask you to regard their absence with some intention, as the missing words are, "first-year." That's right, children. Signout is a senior resident.

I'm not one of those people who normally gets a deep emotional rush at my own graduation ceremonies; I guess I'm usually just over it by the time they're playing the music and lining us up. But this morning, as I wrote "R1" next to my name on my last progress note for the last time, I could swear I heard a cheer swell behind my eardrums, and I felt my own blood pressure rise with a very real and immediate sense of having finished something huge. Perhaps it's because I was post-call, but I even got a little teary-eyed on the way to the car.

When I go back on Monday, I will no longer be an intern, and my job will be a totally different one than it used to be. I will be expected to know more, to do more, and to teach and guide my team. I will set the pace and the tone. I will get dibs on things. I will determine if and when we go to get coffee. (We will, and before 10 a.m.) It is going to be great.

Before the music fades into the distance, I'd like to thank the readers of this blog for reading at all, and for the often thoughtful, engaging, and educational conversation you've brought to my humble corner of the interwebs. I'd especially like to thank my network of wonderful family and friends, many of them residents themselves, who've offered priceless words of support both public and private as I've shared the agonies and the ecstasies.

To the rising R2's, a hearty congratulations. I knew we could do it. Onward, H.O.!