With a Little Help From My Friends

This week I was fortunate enough to have three very special visitors- it is always delightful to have friends visit Woonsocket.

On Wednesday night, I went out for drinks and desserts with Megan and Dave at River Falls. Dave was actually the pharmacist that hired me to work as a pharmacy technician six years ago. To this day, I still remember my interview in the counseling room over spring break of my freshman year of college. My friends and I had planned a road trip for the second half of the week, but I wanted to make sure that I had a job for the summer to help in my efforts to get into pharmacy school (and to make sure I wanted to be a pharmacist- how awful would it be if I had gone through six years of school and then decided I hated pharmacy!). Dave was the pharmacy manager, and Megan was the lead technician that worked at his store. I couldn't have asked for better examples than Megan and Dave for my first pharmacy experience.

Megan was a wonderful teacher- extremely patient, hands-on, and a good communicator, all while being positive. She made the pharmacy a great place to work- I can honestly say that there was not one day that I dreaded going in to work at that pharmacy. An early memory that sticks out is being amazing at how many patients' names Megan knew. She was always the first to address customers, even if she was in the middle of something- a lesson that I carry with me to this day. (People just want to be acknowledged!)

Over the last six years, I have worked in more than a dozen different pharmacies, and I have never worked with someone as compassionate and and passionate as Dave. He went the extra mile to ensure his patients had the best care possible. He would even arrive at work an hour early to have a one-on-one consultation with patients that needed help. I also respected Dave because he never asked his to staff to do anything he wouldn't do.... he'd ring out customers at the register, put away stock bottles, etc. While Dave was checking prescriptions, he would quiz me on side effects, counseling points, brand name, mechanism of action, etc. (this is all in my first two years of pharmacy school!). The pharmacy was well-run, thanks to Dave.

Along with Megan and Dave, there were a number of other outstanding pharmacists, technicians, and interns that I worked with at that store that helped me to be successful. I just finished the book, "Outliers," by Malcolm Gladwell- it tackles the question of why some people are more successful than others. In one section of the book, he talks about the effect that opportunity has on a person's success. Some people are just in the right place at the right time and/or know the right people. Of course, people who become successful still must work hard and take advantage of the opportunities provided to them, but the fact that they have had an opportunity for an experience that allows them to excel is a large contributor to their success. In some ways, I feel like I have had this advantage... I worked for Dave, who introduced me to Amy, who introduced me to Ron, who told me about this residency. Right place, right time, right people.

On Thursday night, Colleen came to spend the night with me. Colleen is one of Nick's classmates (well, former, she is graduating this year) that was in Bloomington with him their first two years of med school. There was a small group of them (less than 30 students), so there was a group of them that became very good friends. Colleen had an interview at Brown on Friday, and I was happy to offer up my place for a free place to stay. (If you are not familiar with medical schools, Brown has an *amazing* program- not only is Colleen smart, she has a lot of international volunteer experience, making her an ideal candidate for just about anywhere.) It's only about 20 minutes from Providence (well worth the drive to save $100+ if you ask me!), and it all worked out really well. She had to go to a dinner on Thursday night (I guess they want to make sure the candidates aren't completely socially awkward? I'm not sure), which let me finish cleaning my apartment before she got there. I hadn't really had a chance to sit down and talk with Colleen (we have hung several times but not really appropriate settings for an in-depth conversation). She was kind enough to let me pick her brain on quite a few topics- med school, surgery, my boyfriend, residencies,research, etc. Hope your interview went well, Colleen!

I was going to go out to dinner with Megan and Dave on Friday, but the group they were working with at the office was taking them to dinner at Foxwoods. I've yet to go there, but from what I've heard, it sounds nice. (Somehow gambling more than once this year just doesn't make sense financially- it's not very prudent.) From all of the whirlwind activity from the week, I was exhausted by Friday. I was planning on watching Sixteen Candles (When Debbie quoted this movie a few weeks ago, I looked at her like I had no idea what she was talking about- she had the movie at home and said I had to watch it to understand her generation.), but I never made it that far. I woke up the next morning on the couch with all of the lights still on in my apartment. Oops!

More to come on my adventures from this weekend!