February 26, 2007
Beer Before Noon
I just finished a hellish exam this morning and made a beeline, with two other classmates, for the brewery across the street from school. Such joy! I've never had such an urge to drink beer before. Except after manual labor. This means that nothing much has changed, really, from my life as a firefighter to my life as a med student.
February 14, 2007
Fan Mail
I received some fan mail today. I was floored. It was very nice.
You might be thinking, "Yeah, right... fan mail? Where would you have fans from?" This just strengthens the assertion I make in my blog subtitle, that I used to be the object of public adoration. It also strengthens my intermittent confusion at why, exactly, I gave up a great job with great pay and great time off, just to be poor, disrespected, underestimated, haggard, frustrated and stressed. If I remember correctly, the original idea was to become of a more scientific mind. So I decided to analyze what exactly qualifies a piece of mail as fan mail. After some thought, it seems the criteria that a piece of mail must meet in order to be differentially diagnosed as "fan," rather than "normal" or "junk" are:
1. The recipient is a publically known figure.
2. The writer is a person, not a marketing computer program.
3. The writer does not personally know the recipient.
4. The writer has a positive impression of the recipient, based on outside information.
5. The writer makes a one-sided effort to contact the recipient.
6. The writer shares his/her stories and feelings.
7. The writer may hope for, but does not necessarily expect, a response.
The letter I received was from a new office employee at the fire department. He is from Irvine, so when he happened to see my name attached to an Irvine address, nostaliga and curiosity combined to culminate in him sending me fan mail. He says he has never met me, but has my new Firefighter I training completion plaque (it takes years to complete the on-the-job training) sitting in limbo in his office, since he cannot deliver it to me at a firehouse anymore. He says he hears firefighters mention my name from time to time, and it apparently adds to the intrigue about this mysterious figure with the interesting last name who went off to med school in his hometown.
It is a nice, handwritten letter. It is quaint that someone out there would hear good things about me and feel compelled to write a letter by hand. I actually sent some fan mail of my own a little while ago, even though it was by email (which is much easier to do, so unfortunately not as meaningful). I spotted my old shoulder surgeon's name in a magazine around Christmastime, honoring him as one of the top doctors in the Bay Area. I felt nostalgic and somehow inspired to congratulate him, so I looked him up online to send him a quick email. I told him how well my shoulder held up in the drill tower and since, and that I was now a medical student to become a doctor just like him. It was a very one-sided letter, but I thought it was nice. And now I have my very own fan mail, similar to my message to my surgeon. It certainly made me feel fuzzy and warm inside that my old co-workers say good things about me, and that I am gone but not forgotten. Maybe what we all need is to send fan mail to people from time to time, and hopefully get fan mail of our own every so often.
You might be thinking, "Yeah, right... fan mail? Where would you have fans from?" This just strengthens the assertion I make in my blog subtitle, that I used to be the object of public adoration. It also strengthens my intermittent confusion at why, exactly, I gave up a great job with great pay and great time off, just to be poor, disrespected, underestimated, haggard, frustrated and stressed. If I remember correctly, the original idea was to become of a more scientific mind. So I decided to analyze what exactly qualifies a piece of mail as fan mail. After some thought, it seems the criteria that a piece of mail must meet in order to be differentially diagnosed as "fan," rather than "normal" or "junk" are:
1. The recipient is a publically known figure.
2. The writer is a person, not a marketing computer program.
3. The writer does not personally know the recipient.
4. The writer has a positive impression of the recipient, based on outside information.
5. The writer makes a one-sided effort to contact the recipient.
6. The writer shares his/her stories and feelings.
7. The writer may hope for, but does not necessarily expect, a response.
The letter I received was from a new office employee at the fire department. He is from Irvine, so when he happened to see my name attached to an Irvine address, nostaliga and curiosity combined to culminate in him sending me fan mail. He says he has never met me, but has my new Firefighter I training completion plaque (it takes years to complete the on-the-job training) sitting in limbo in his office, since he cannot deliver it to me at a firehouse anymore. He says he hears firefighters mention my name from time to time, and it apparently adds to the intrigue about this mysterious figure with the interesting last name who went off to med school in his hometown.
It is a nice, handwritten letter. It is quaint that someone out there would hear good things about me and feel compelled to write a letter by hand. I actually sent some fan mail of my own a little while ago, even though it was by email (which is much easier to do, so unfortunately not as meaningful). I spotted my old shoulder surgeon's name in a magazine around Christmastime, honoring him as one of the top doctors in the Bay Area. I felt nostalgic and somehow inspired to congratulate him, so I looked him up online to send him a quick email. I told him how well my shoulder held up in the drill tower and since, and that I was now a medical student to become a doctor just like him. It was a very one-sided letter, but I thought it was nice. And now I have my very own fan mail, similar to my message to my surgeon. It certainly made me feel fuzzy and warm inside that my old co-workers say good things about me, and that I am gone but not forgotten. Maybe what we all need is to send fan mail to people from time to time, and hopefully get fan mail of our own every so often.
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