Enjoy the Ride

So the first half of Ben's first year in medical school is now complete. Whew! Where did that 19 weeks go?!  In some ways, we're excited to think about how quickly the time will fly.  But on the other hand, we're both reminding ourselves not to wish our lives away. 

In high school, I had a teacher who handed out a copy of Constantine Cavafy's poem "Ithaka" to his senior students just before graduation:

"As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon-don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon-you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean."

In short: enjoy the ride! And learn a few things along the way.  It goes without saying that my husband is learning a ton, but as it turns out, I've learned a few lessons of my own.


1.  It's OK to leave the house a bit messy in the name of having a life.
2.  I'm lucky to be a sound sleeper!  (But I'll share some sleeping tips we've picked up along the way in future posts.)
3.  Sometimes you just have to straight up tell your med student when you don't want to hear graphic details about the human body.  There should probably be house rules outlining specific times throughout the day that will always be inappropriate.
4.  You don't have to put your own ambitions on hold to support your spouse. 

Spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends:  What have YOU learned so far?