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S.W.E.A.T: Stanford Wilderness Experience Activity Orientation Trip

Medical school so far (at least for English-major-5-years-out-of-college me) has been like drinking from a fire hose. Everything hits you at once. As so many of the balls you previously were juggling come crashing to the floor. As noted by my previous post, blogging was one such. Here’s to hoping it was a rubber ball, not a glass.

So SWEAT was three weeks ago now. Dear Lord that seems like a lifetime ago. Back then I was nervous about such silly things as sticking a needle into a friend’s arm or cutting through a dead lady’s ribs with a electric saw. It’s only been a few weeks but these things now feel as natural as going to lecture or lab now.

Anyway, back to topic. SWEAT, not the best acronym, but a really really wonderful experience. My group of ten first year SMSers and two seasoned students high tailed it up to the Stanislaus Wilderness, very near to Yosemite, and did a little backpacking/bonding. The hiking was underwhelming, the terrain forgiving. But most nights we camped next to beautiful lakes that allowed me to get in a good kilometer or two of swimming. The views also were beautiful. You can check out my facebook photos here.

But what really made my trip were my future classmates. I’m still in awe of them all. Everyone’s either a butt-kicking good scientist, a change-the-world activist, or both. More importantly, everyone had a ridiculous sense of humor. We played it safe around each other for about a day…and then came the first game of Two Truths and a Lie…I could tell you about that, but, well, then I’d have to kill you.

The trip ended up with all of the groups convening on a large campsite. Each group put on its own skit. Ours was the funniest, of course. And then we stayed up way way to late sitting around the campfire. Crack of dawn the next day we were in cars and coursing back to Palo Alto for orientation.