"imma do it do it. like i wanna do it."
I am eager and excited to reincarnate this project and it thrills me at how perfect the word 'reincarnate' is for this sentence. The first version of Hippos and Crates should have been a healthy two years old by now -- a stumbling, babbling, and chubby-cheeked toddler continuing its steady growth and development. Unfortunately I made the regretful choice to end that initial version after only a single year. A premature death.
What could it have become?
Would it have improved and developed or stayed constant and stagnant?
I will never know and that is where my regret truly lies. Greater awareness and insight into myself, my colleagues, and a journey through the medical education system was the goal but by no means were any rewards guaranteed. Perhaps my writings and reflections would become worse and this project would simply be just the mindless utterances of a sleep-deprived medical student. Just maybe, however, it could have served as a reminder and springboard from which further realizations and discussions could start and hopefully flourish.
But, again, I will never know -- and more often than not the lack of closure...the not knowing is much worse.
What better then to do than to bring about a spiritual successor?
I can think of no better time to do such a thing then at the cusp of the Year 3 Clinical Rotations.
For two years medical students are in the classrooms learning and aiming to master the Basic Sciences so as to form a sturdy foundation upon which to build future medical expertise. The final two years, however, are spent on the hospital wards and in the clinics...out where we can finally apply the knowledge we have been processing and storing for two years.
I am not certain how often I will be able to add entries to this project, but what I am certain of is that this one will not experience the same fate as the last. Version 2.0 will be a different beast. Though it is arguable, the Clinical Years are (to me at least) heavily and disproportionately weighted towards the Hippos rather than the Crates. I have never hid the fact that, when it comes down to it, I tend to favor the Hippos -- and that is why this reincarnation will not be your grandmother's Hippos and Crates.
What are Hippos? What are Crates?
I'll save the explanation for later as, similar to many subjects in medicine, the concept is better taught through experience rather than raw didactic. But just to plant a seed...this project is a tribute to the 'father of medicine': Hippocrates.
You can not have the full name without its parts and medicine can not exist without both its Hippos as well as its Crates.
Tomorrow is Day One. Let's try this again.
"let me keep going, baby, 'til im dead and gone.
thats my only wish.
and if you dont know ill be singing my song."
