“What’s it like,” your family asks 
David Marulanda

It was the last day of the fourth week of the first rotation of Third Year. He was scheduled
to spend the day at a specialty clinic to get a taste of something out of the ordinary routine.
The instructions had an address and nothing else.
He arrived as the August sun rose over the hospital, ominously silhouetting the building.
The department name he was given did not exactly match the branded signs hanging on the
ceiling, but close enough. The informatory emails were probably years old and recycled. He
stood in front of the opaque reception window, unsure if life was on the other side.
“Do you have an appointment,” asked the aging receptionist in her best this-has-been-along-day-voice.
“Good morning! I’m a medical student. I was told to be here,” he responded, gesturing to
his white coat in self-defense.
“We weren’t expecting you.”
“Uhh, do you wanna see the email I got?”
“What doctor are you with?”
“It doesn’t say.”
“Come around.”
Her journey to the door was a long and hard one as he found himself waiting by the only
door for what seemed like the whole morning. The door clicked open and she was already
headed back on the long way to her chair when he walked through.
“Where am I going,” he called out to her across.
“Down the hall, make a right, doctor’s lounge,” and with that she disappeared from his life.
He made his way down the empty, white, and brightly lit hall to an empty windowless
room where the physicians spend most of their lives. No one was around, so like every good
medical student, he conjured his laptop preloaded with UWorld, and went to work on the
inevitable 40% score, when a physician’s assistant strolled in and ignored his existence. He
turned to ask her what the plan was, though she didn’t know much about what to do with
medical students either.
“She’ll be in soon,” was the PA’s response without clarifying the “she.”
Half an hour and three roomed patients later a woman popped her head in the doorway
and beckoned them both.
“C’mon,” the woman said and he became a tuition paying shadow