As explained in my last blog, dating in med school can be challenging. Beginning a new relationship can be exciting yet stressful, and maintaining a solid relationship can be both comforting, but also difficult with packed schedules. I have been incredibly lucky to be dating an awesome guy and consider myself even luckier that he’s a professional school student, too.
I actually think dating another student is the ideal situation. Besides the unlimited access to his law school library right across the street (it pales in comparison to ours; like, it has huge windows and is so quiet you could hear a pin drop! #nerdproblems), knowing I have a faithful study partner on Saturday nights, and confidence that he’ll always be up for a coffee run, dating Phil has been such a blessing through all of the trials school has and will continue to throw at us.
I’m in the midst of studying for Step 1 right now and am admittedly terribly grumpy when I’m stressed. Yet Phil has been the best cheerleader, tough love-giver, food-deliverer, and best friend I could have ever asked for. While I’m in hardcore study mode, he’s also studying for finals and understands the stresses that graduate school places on us and that I can’t hang out all weekend because, well, he needs to hit the books, too. I love being able to ask him questions about what he’s learning and sharing what I’ve learned, too, getting a glimpse of what he is passionate about, a world totally outside of medicine. Yet, it’s really interesting when our two worlds collide: last month during our reproductive system theme, we had a lot of lectures on the ethics of abortion, which is a topic often discussed in Phil’s law classes. It was really interesting talking over what we each had learned from our respective classes on a run one Friday afternoon.
Honestly, I could gush about my boyfriend forever (ha, I know, gross…I’ll stop now), but the bottom line is that having a successful relationship while in medical school is possible with some careful scheduling, flexibility, and patience. Like with anything, if it’s important to you, you’ll make time for it no matter how busy you are.
