Life cycles

It is sometimes said that our lives are made up of 7-year cycles; we somehow reinvent ourselves, or just simply change a little bit in a cycle. I don't think it matters how many years our "cycles" are, but it is definitely true: we do go through phases in life in which we think differently, do things differently, take more or less risks, meet more or less people, become more or less open to the world, or just simply change out paths.

Recently, a few close friends of mine have been going through such life changes. My closest friend while growing up in Hungary just left her residency training in Medicine to travel around India for 3 months, looking for something that she feels is missing from her life. While I firmly believe that whatever is missing from one's life can be found more locally than traveling halfway around the world, I do commend her on taking the risk and embarking on this adventure of a lifetime. I sincerely hope that she finds whatever it is she is looking for, or at least that she returns to Europe with a new world view, or just a sense of being more at peace. Another friend of mine here in New York left her decade-long career in science and is trying to find her real passions. We had dinner earlier this week and she mentioned that she knew a lot of people in their 30's doing the same thing. Another close friend from grad school just started law school a few weeks ago to become a patent lawyer.

I was thinking about all these things while out on a run in Central Park a couple of days ago. I am training for the 2013 NYC Marathon, which is just a little over a month away. I am really excited! The first time I was in these same shoes was 4 years ago now, training for the 2009 NYCM. That season ended up being a huge turning point in my life. Whether or not it had something to do with the running, I can't say, but I'd like to believe it. In August that year, I ran a really difficult half marathon in 80+ degree weather and managed to fracture a metatarsal bone in my foot. With 6-8 weeks of recovery, the marathon was out of the question. I was very disappointed. Also, I suddenly had a lot of time freed up that fall. So maybe it was all that free time that suddenly got me to think about bigger things, who knows. But it was that fall that I made the decision to embark on this new journey that I am still at the beginning of right now.

It's amazing how things turn out in life. I wish I could tell myself 4 years ago that everything was going to be ok. But how wonderful life is, that we can look back and realize that 4 years ago, if someone had told me that 4 years later I would be starting my second year in medical school, I would be in love with a great man and would be in the greatest shape of my life training for the NYC Marathon, I probably wouldn't have believed them at all. While it's easy to get bogged down by the little daily struggles, it's so important to think about life as a whole sometimes. Starting my second in year in medical school was a little rough. This past summer was a blast! Having a 9-5 job was so nice! I had my evenings and weekends free, took a long weekend trip to Montreal with the boyfriend, spent another week in El Salvador with a college friend, and just did a lot of relaxing in general. Being thrown head first into 4 weeks of anatomy after this was a shock to the system. Things have calmed down since - being done with anatomy FOREVER helps a lot! - and now I am just really excited to be just 3 months away from starting clinical clerkships!

Maybe my life turns in 4-year cycles, who knows. But in any case, it's good to think about these things at least every 4 years.