After a week or so of orientations and Neurology crash courses, disorienting orientations, collecting badges to four different hospitals, and panicked texts to our chief residents, Adam and I started our lives as Neurology residents today. Adam and I started together in 2018, making him my co-resident and “neurobro” for the duration of this journey. Despite coming from different schools, as med students we interviewed for the UCSD Child Neurology residency program on the same day.
From the beginning, we’ve noted numerous similarities between us: we share interests in the neuroscience of artificial intelligence, technology, politics, board games, and so on. More uncannily, when he helped us move in, we found that we owned a lot of the same items, and even had similar thought processes in choosing them. Some things include:
- Wireless router (and later, new wireless router)
- Headphones (Audio Technica ATH-M50)
- Water bottle
- Reflex hammer
- Stethoscope holster
Despite our kinship, we take very different yet complementary approaches to problem-solving. One could say I’m the right hemisphere to his left hemisphere. All of this to say, I am looking forward to sharing an office with him for the next three years.
We get offices! This morning we were greeted by a space full of possibility—and a welcome sign for its previous occupant. I haven’t had my own desk since grad school, six (!) years ago now. Perhaps the biggest implication of this as a resident is that in at least one hospital, I have a dual-monitor computer that will always be available.
