Dry January, Gap Years, and Hidden Talents

Oh.

It also made me realize that I have no talents.

That's not true. You do. Great TikTok skits.

Thanks, Mom. Hi, everybody, and welcome to the podcast. This is Generations Maryland. My name is Stephanie and I'm joined here by my colleague, Dr. Sarah Davis, who's also my mother. So today is January 7th, and I think that this is the last day that I can do Happy New Year.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's true.

I've really been milking it today. We had to be in person today. And it was a real who's who on campus. It was a real. It was just everyone was out and about, you know, how was break. Lots of the same stuff. And I was hitting everyone with the Happy New Year.

And they loved it, didn't they?

They loved it. People love it. I'm trying to give good energy to people for the new year.

So, yeah, I. I've been doing your Happy New Year thing too. Like if I'm texting a patient, I started off with happy New Year. Yeah, you need to come in and get blood drive.

Exactly. People love it. See, people get all political about the Merry Christmas and the Happy Holidays, Happy New Year. Everyone loves it. All right.

Everyone loves. It's a crowd pleaser.

It's a crowd pleaser. Absolutely. That kind of remind me. So I'm starting preceptorships this semester. So new semester, everybody.

Med school preceptorships in MS.1. You don't know anything.

Yeah, I don't know anything. True. But I'm going in pulmonology, so don't know much about that, but hopefully I won't get pimped too much. I don't know. We'll see.

Is this like an outpatient clinic that you're. That you shadow?

Minimal information. But yes, that's my understanding. I. I emailed because they were like, okay, email your preceptors to see.

You.

Know, to ask about location and everything. And I sent an email that was, you know, classic Ms. One, like, hi, I'm looking forward to be getting my preceptorship with you this semester. Before we get started, I wanted to confirm that our first session is blah, blah, blah. The address I have is blah, blah, blah. So that look correct? If so, will I need badge access to enter the clinic? Also, do you have a preference on my attire? Scrubs or business professional? Looking forward to get starting. Wishing you a Happy New Year. The response I get, yes, period address is accurate. Period scrubs are fine.

Period. Dad could have written that.

Yeah, no, that's what I. That's exactly what I expected, though. Yeah.

Paul Tran does a bunch of tiktoks about this very subject, and they're so funny. He has, like. I saw one where he has this thing of, like, you know, waiting to see if they email me back about my rotation. And then the person, like, gets the email, and they're like, yeah, like, celebrating because they know something about where they're supposed to be. He also does a lot of those things. Like, then the student shows up on the first day, and they're like, oh, no, this is not where you're supposed to be. You're supposed to be across town and. Or, oh, no, the preceptor is out for the next week. Didn't anybody tell you? And so, anyway, hopefully. Hopefully, none of those skits will be your reality.

That happened to me when I was shadowing. I remember I drove all the way to the wrong place to shadow radiology, and because I was in a class in undergrad, and I showed up, and no one really cared. I guess they were kind of like, oh, we don't really see you on here, but sure, you can go with this guy. And then I was like, okay. And then I think I figured it out, was like, oh, I'm in the wrong place. And I had to drive, like, another hour somewhere else. And I showed up kind of at the end of the day. And, yeah, I was really embarrassed, but no one cared.

No one cares. Yeah. Yeah. But do you feel like, oh, no, if I don't show up, like, I'm gonna get a bad grade or something?

Like, yeah, yeah, that was. Yeah.

And. But, you know, nobody even knew you were coming.

Yeah, no one knew I was coming. Nobody cared. So, yeah. Oh, that also reminded me. I've seen all these tiktoks now about that. It's like nurses making fun of residents not putting discharge orders in and taking forever to do it. So they'll be sitting around a laptop, and then they'll. It'll be like some dramatic music, and.

They'Ll all be waiting.

And then it's like, yes, finally. And then, like, the beat will drop or whatever. And they're all, like, screaming because, yes, finally, the resident put the discharge order for. In for their patients. And all the comments are all these residents being like, we have to manage the hospital and do all of this other stuff. Like, you guys need to stop making fun of us for not discharging your patients. Like, all this stuff. It's some discourse.

Well, yeah, that seems like a. You know, it's one of Those things where I don't think it's worth commenting on. It's, you know, I mean, for the nurse's perspective, like, they are literally just waiting for that. But from the doctor's perspective, they are doing 100 other things and they will get to it. But, you know, when somebody's, like, dying over here, doing this paperwork is just not quite as, you know, it's not at the top of the list. So, I don't know. People need to chill out.

Yeah, people need to chill out.

Oh, speaking of chilling out, it is very cold here in Dallas.

Let's talk about the weather.

Let's talk about the weather. It's such a great topic, but I'm sitting here with my hot cocoa, you.

See, you know, I don't hate weather as a topic. People really hate on weather. I don't know, man. You can just stick to it. You're not offending anyone. You're just getting into it. Just, it's nice and easy and it affects everybody. You can all relate on how the weather is outside.

Well, yes. Now, I grew up in California. We didn't really talk about the weather all that much because there isn't any weather. It's the same all the time. Now. Once in a while, you know, it would rain, so that was exciting. But, you know, it wasn't really that dramatically different from day to day, or like, the changes happen so slowly. It's like, oh, it's starting to get cold on Monday now. It drops a few more degrees on Tuesday and a few more degrees on Wednesday. And so, you know, then maybe it drops, I don't know, 15 or 20 degrees by the end of the week. Not like here on Sunday, where it started off at, like, 65 degrees in the morning. And over the course of, like, three hours, it dropped down to 20 degrees, which, you know, that's some exciting weather.

Right?

That's a big difference between 65 and 22 or something. So. But Celsius, right? That was all Fahrenheit, just to be clear. All right.

Making it clear for our viewers or our listeners.

Listeners. That's good. That's good. Because maybe some people are not in the United States. They get confused. But it's a. It's a big deal because we might get some snow on Thursday and Friday at the end of this week. So everybody's talking about it. The store shelves are, like, half bare. Everybody's, like, really, really stocking up because they might not be able to leave the house for a couple of days. And at one point, they Were saying we might get, like, 9 inches of snow, but now they've kind of backed off of that, and they're like one to two inches of snow. But, you know, who knows? You gotta be prepared. Gotta be prepared, because you know what the snow removal plan of Dallas is?

Don't move.

Wait for it to melt.

Yeah, there you go.

That's. That's the policy.

Why would you put a bunch of effort into something that rarely happens?

It doesn't happen very often. It's gonna melt. It just. Yeah. It's not worth, like, having this whole plan. I've heard that the city of Dallas has exactly two snowplows. So, you know, maybe people love to bag on everybody here when everybody's going crazy because there's, you know, snow and ice and nobody knows what to do, and people are panicking. But at the same time, it's just completely different from people who are like, you know, when you're up north somewhere, like, there's a whole plan in place. There's snow plows. There's like, all those roads get plowed. I mean, driving on a plowed road is not. It doesn't take any skill. That's just, you know, that's just driving on a road. And so people are saying, oh, people there don't know how to drive. Drive in the snow. Well, that's. That's true. But it's also, like, if there's a bunch of ice on the road, that's not safe for anybody to drive on, no matter what their experience is.

But you're. If you're a doctor or nurse, you gotta go. Right?

Right. Well, that's what dad has to do. So it's always off driving around while I'm just staying home, drinking hot cocoa, doing things over the phone.

Yeah. And I mean, that's what everyone else has to do. But if you're. That is kind of scary, though, that you do have to. I mean, dad's fine because he can drive, but I don't know, like, if I had to go into the hospital, it would be a little dangerous for me. I don't know. I'm not a good, very good driver.

I think you're a perfectly good driver. But fortunately, where you are, you're probably not going to have, like, a lot of that, at least. At least during med school. But, yeah, I. You know, it is tough and. And it is something that happens like when. Like when dad's looking to hire doctors and they say that they live somewhere that's like 45 minutes away from the hospital. He's like, that's not gonna work. Like, you can't. You just can't do that. You need to live close to the hospital because, you know, the weather could be even different 45 minutes away somewhere, and you need to. You need to get there.

Is there a lot of sickness? Is there a lot of sick people?

Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of sickness around.

What's the deal with it being cold outside and you get more sick? Because that's what people. I still hear it all the time is people say, I, you know, don't go outside. It's cold, you're gonna get sick.

It's a couple different things. It's very unfortunate that we call an upper respiratory tract infection a cold. We really. We really need a better name for that, because when you call something a cold and then you say, well, the cold doesn't cause a cold, people are never going to believe you.

But aren't things more easily transmitted? That's why you get more sick in the winter time, because viruses and bacteria and stuff can transmit more easily when it's cold.

Well, the theory, what they always tell you is that, you know, people are just packed more indoors at that time of year because it's cold. People aren't outside. You're, you know, you're jammed together inside doing various things. I mean, you also have kids in school. That's. That's a factor as well. But I don't know. I'm still a little bit skeptical. Like, I feel like there are probably some other reasons that we have not really identified. Because I think about in Dallas, Texas, in the summertime, we are indoors even more than we are in the winter.

And people are traveling more in the summer. You would think that would up transmission more, but.

Yeah, Yeah, I don't know. I think there's probably some other. Some other factors at play that. That are really not accounted for. It's. I mean, it is a little bit baffling to me. Like, the flu season, you know, it starts kind of late fall, like, goes through winter, and then is done generally by sometime, like, early to mid spring. And. But the. The season is the same in, like, Miami. Okay. It's not getting cold in Miami. Like, people are. So I don't know, it's starting somewhere and then spreading there. That's like, whenever you. Whenever you ask it, that's always the answer that, you know, the experts give. But I'm always like, yeah, I don't know. But, no, you don't get a cold from being cold. And I don't know, people have a really tough time with that, especially when you have young children. People always want to bundle them up in all of these coats and hats and boots. And then they're running around and they're super hot and they're like, well, we don't want them to get sick. Like, no, they're not going to get sick. They're just going to get overheated from all that stuff that they're wearing.

We talked about this on the last podcast. Just with snow and weather, you might have less transmission of disease.

That's true, that's true. Because people are staying home and it.

Does stink that you don't, you don't really get to have snow days anymore though, because everything's online.

Yeah, I think, yeah, they're kind of going back and forth in that. Sometimes they're just like, ah, no, it kind of is a day off. I mean, honestly, even when you were like in middle school, they would still give you work to do that. The teachers would just like email us stuff.

In high school, I remember because in high school everything was. We had like an online platform that we could access. So honestly, our homework and stuff was already online, so it was fine. But they didn't really have the whole recorded lectures thing down. But now you can just pre record lectures and stuff like that. So it's, it's just a lot easier like now if school got canceled and I couldn't go to school, nothing would change my day change at all.

Yeah, well, again, I'm not that sympathetic to the no snow days because I lived in California. There was no such thing. We didn't have snow days. Yeah. But life was so hard growing up in California.

We had today our cadaver memorial, which was very nice. It was very, it was good. It was put on by some of the students and we all went up and lit candles for our cadavers. So it was really nice. And what came up in during this service was a couple of students went up and did musical performances.

Oh, wow.

And a couple of people played piano and my friend Kang played the violin. And I was just like, wow, all of these people have all of these skills that I never get to see. And I was like, I didn't even know. Like this one guy got up there and he stands up and just gives this whole spiel about the reason that he's playing this song. Because the composer wrote this in 18 something something. And he was a French composer who was friends with it. I don't know. He went on the whole thing and Then he gets down there. His. His eyes were closed as he's playing the piano, and he just went off and it was incredible. I was like, wow, all of these people have so many skills. And I've spent so much, so much time with all these people that I didn't even know.

Wow, that is incredible. Well, and that's nice that, you know, doing the whole service. We had that when I was in school as well. Although we didn't have a bunch of talented people playing music and stuff. But. But it is a nice thing to really thank those people. It's a really amazing thing that they have donated their bodies just for you to learn on. And so it's nice to be grateful.

Yeah, it was good. It was a nice closing of that chapter.

So.

Yeah, but it was. It was good. It also made me realize that I have no talents.

That's not true. You. You do great, TikTok skits.

Thanks, Mom. Thank you.

And, well, you know, I told you when I showed my hairdresser your tick tock skits, he just kept saying, wow, the camera just loves her. Oh, you know, but I can't, like.

Play the piano or do anything cool like that. Also just. I know, like, I. I grew up doing cheerleading and I loved doing cheerleading, but I. That has no skills that I can currently use. Like, I can't just casually go play soccer or volleyball or tennis or something like that. I can't still whip out a backflip. I don't think so.

Stunt any of your friends, kind of, you know, put them up in the air.

It's. No. No leisure skills. Yeah. No.

So, well, so are you saying we should go back in time and I should, like, tie you to piano and make you just, like, practice, practice, practice?

I wanted to play piano as a kid.

Yeah, that's true.

And you weren't really about.

I thought you, like, you had a keyboard. That was. That was enough.

I remember going over to the neighbor's house.

Yeah, you played some piano over there. Listen, you wanted to do lots of things as a kid. I'm sorry, but just because, like, you're so six year old says they want to play piano. I'm not investing $1,000 into a piano that you're going to be tired of three months later.

Valid, valid, valid. Fine, fine, fine.

Yeah, you could have taken up singing.

I went on a trip with my friends for New Year's and we did karaoke. We did karaoke at home. Went out and did karaoke. One of my good friends, Issa, she likes to sing A lot. And I was really trying. Really, really trying. Like, all I want to do is be able to sing so bad, and I try so hard. And some people have it and some people don't, and I think I got it.

You probably just need some lessons, you know?

Yeah, no. Thomas, my boyfriend Thomas, gets upset with me because I do sing a lot.

And it doesn't sound good.

Doesn't sound good.

Yeah.

Well, I am gonna. You know, I think things are working out for me in a different realm. So.

What realm is that? This. This realm. Podcasting, like going to med school and.

Like, being a doctor.

Yeah.

That's a part of things that you forget about that.

Mom.

I do have another thing going on.

You got med school, you got podcasting, you got your TikTok skits. You have your wonderful personality. You got all your friends. You don't need any other talents. Okay, thanks.

Well, TikTok's going away, so that's one that's gone.

Do you think it's really going to go away?

I don't know. I don't really follow. I'm just going to keep on keeping on.

Yeah. Who knows what will happen if not, something else will come along. And, you know, I mean, I know that reels and all that, but reels is just not really the same. Okay. I have a rant.

All right.

I've ranted about this before, but I want to rant some more just because I've been just kind of, like, looking into it a little bit more and really looking at numbers. So this is. I'm ranting about the fact that students pretty much, like, have to take a gap year or it's strongly in their favor if they take at least one gap year. Now, again, I don't really have a problem with one gap year. I think that's kind of, like. That's kind of necessary.

But I love taking my gap year. I. I highly recommend it, even if it wasn't required or whatever. Things worked out well doing that.

Things did work out well for you, but it's important to realize that you had some advantages that not everybody has. Didn't have a lot of, like, living expenses.

Yeah, I lived at home. Yeah.

So, you know, the money that you made, you were able to spend on fun things, so that allowed you to have fun during your gap year. But, you know, not everybody has that. For a lot of people, they've got to pay their living expenses. They're doing some job that is not paying them very much, and so they barely have anything left to. To do. Those fun things now, you know, they have a little bit more free time and, you know, and kind of let your brain rest after all of that stress and before med school. And I think there's, again, there's nothing wrong with that. If somebody wants to take a gap year, I think that's great. If they want to take 2, 3, 4 y gap years, that's what they want to do, I think that's perfectly fine. My problem is that it's kind of getting forced upon people to take all of these gap years. And, you know, I did look at, look this up. So now, According to the AAMC, 73.2% of matriculating students that's, you know, people that are starting med school took at least one gap year, which is up from 57% ten years ago. 15% of people took three to four gap years, and 8.5% of people took five or more gap years. So, you know, the question is, again, if it just happened that all these people are wanting to take two or three gap years, again, I don't have a problem with that. I don't think it should be held against anybody if they want to take a gap year. But when you look into it and you, and you find out, you know, were those, quote, forced gap years, in other words, they applied and they didn't get in. And a lot of those are forced gap years.

How do you know that, that they're forced gap years?

Just. Well, I don't have the numbers, but, like, when you, I, I looked at various other studies of it, and there were, there were a lot of them that admitted, you know, yes, it was a forced gap year. Well, I saw this one study that they interviewed, like 20 people to find out if taking gap years was good or not good. And they were interviewing these people, like, during their, like, first or second year of med school, which I thought was a little early to determine if it was really beneficial or not beneficial to take a gap year. And you know what they came to the conclusion of when they asked the people, well, you know, did you like taking the gap year? So again, like 2/3 of them, like, they wanted to take one gap year, but any more gap years were forced upon them. But when you ask them, well, was it good, Was it beneficial? They all said, oh, you know, it was really good. Like, I, I think I really needed those years to mature. Blah, blah. Well, you know, I think that that's a great reframing. I mean, if you apply to med school and you don't get in and you do another gap year. It's very important to reframe that as something positive and try to do some positive things with that time. But that doesn't mean that you wanted to take that g. The. The other thing. The other problem that I have with it is that why would you be a better doctor? Just because you have a longer pedigree, a bigger resume before you even start, and you're more mature before you start medical school? But the time between starting medical school and finishing residency is a minimum of seven years. You're going to be a hell of a lot more mature at the end of those seven years. You don't need to mature before you start medical school. You don't have to be ready to be a doctor when you start medical school. Well, I don't.

I don't know, because I think that I do see a difference between people who just finished college and, I mean, majority of people, yeah, like, have at least one gap year, but there is a difference between people who just finished college and people who have taken more time off. Like, there is a maturity level difference. And I think that it's like, med school's hard. And I think that in order to be the most successful during this time, it might be beneficial to take a year in between. And I'm not saying that makes you. Is gonna make you a better doctor, but I think that it might enhance your life experience, like, on an individual level.

Well, I mean, yes, I think that it probably makes it better in medical school, but, like, if you're kind of looking down the line later on in your life, you know, it's. It. You know. Okay, so let's say you're a woman and you start med school at age 25. Basically, you're at that point, especially if you choose to do a longer residency, you're going to have to have. You're going to have to start your family during residency or fellowship. And so, you know, you might not be so thrilled when you are a resident and you have, you know, a toddler and a baby. You might be like, okay, this kind of stinks.

Okay, but also, I don't know that was that person's decision to do that. And that girl might not want babies and might not want kids, and maybe that's not her concern right then. And I don't know if I understand what you're saying, but I don't know. There's more options and people are having kids later. And I understand not everybody has the privilege to be able to do that, but I don't Know, I just think that I understand what you're saying in the sense that I don't think admissions committees should compare a person with a lot of gap years versus a person right out of college. And that seems unfair to make that decision. But I think from the applicant's perspective, I do think just it's not the end of the world if you have to take a couple gap years and.

Yeah, it's not the end of the world. I just don't, I don't like that decision being made for the applicant. Yeah, yeah, I think that is the applicant's decision. They should look into it, they should decide how they feel about it. But that decision should not be taken away from the applicant. And I just think it's very unfair to compare a 25 year old to a 22 year old and have the exact same standard for both of those people. You know, the 25 year old has all those extra years to do a whole bunch of things, to do a bunch of research, to do a, a bunch of stuff that is going to look really good on their Resume. And the 22 year old is not going to have those things. But that doesn't mean that the 22 year old isn't going to be just as great of a doctor. And you know, the problem on a societal level is it is going to contribute to the doctor shortage that is out there. People who, you know, you're generally going to retire at a particular age. And so, you know, if you are taking five gap years, well now that's five less years that you're going to be in the workforce again. If you multiply that across all of these different people, you know, you have fewer doctors that, that, that, you know, makes fewer doctor working years across the board. So, you know, our training is already so long. And then factor in that we're also having a lot of these people for these competitive specialties. Specialties do research in the middle of their residency or before residency. So a lot of these people are doing, finishing med school, doing a year of research, then starting their residency. So this is kind of more and more and more years that are pushed back before that person is actually in the workforce. And I just think it's like, I just think it's getting ridiculous. We got to get these people working.

Yeah, no, I, I'm with you. Yeah, we gotta, we gotta get people working. I, that is true. There are a lot of people who take research years and stuff and. Yeah, let's just get to the point. And I, yeah, it is, it's Tough though, because then you have like, since it's already kind of this, it's already starting then, you know, then the 25 year old who has applied for three cycles and now has all of this other stuff versus the 22 year old who, who just applied then. Now I just feel bad for the 25 year old because they did work all this stuff to be able to their application up to compete with everybody else. So, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah, I just think that, you know, I just think that each person should be, you know, evaluated individually. But I just don't think you should hold it. You shouldn't hold against the person who, who did something else for a while and you shouldn't hold it against the person who is, you know, who is ready and has all their ducks in a row and wants to apply and wants to get going on the whole thing. Can I, can I do my analogy of sorority rush? Go for it. Okay, the, I mean this is my analogy and to, to kind of make this gap year thing a little. This is an oversimplification because obviously it's, it's somewhat different. But just for our listeners, if anybody is familiar with sorority rush, here's the deal. These girls go through rush and there's a quota for each house. So if there's 1,000 girls going through a rush and there are 10 houses, basically each house is going to get 100 of those girls. That's just kind of in a nutshell the way the whole things work so that they get distributed throughout the houses. So if it's, and it's in a sorority's best interest to have more people in their sorority, especially if you have a expensive house, you have to pay for that. Defrays more cost amongst, you know, defrays cost amongst more people, blah, blah. Anyway, it's better to have more girls in your house. So if you take only juniors that are going through rush, you will. And it's quote is always 100. You're going to have 200 girls in your house. If you take only freshmen, you're going to end up with 400 girls in your house. So, you know, one of the things that they used to tell us back in the dark ages, I don't know if they still do, is that, you know, you can't compare a junior to a freshman. You know, if you're a junior and you are talking to these rushies that are coming through, you're going to love that junior. She's mature. I mean, there's a huge difference between an 18 year old and a 20 year old, you have more in common with her. That's the one that you're going to choose, you know, more often than not. But the freshman, you have to just give her a little bit of extra grace and say, you know what, two years from now, she could be just as poised and lovely as this junior. And it is in our best interest to have more freshmen. So let's just give a little more grace to these freshmen. We call them diamonds in the rough. And again, they're going to be just as great a members of your sorority when they are a little bit older. So that, so that's kind of my analogy. Again, it's an oversimplification because you're talking about a much shorter period of time. But I just think that if you really, you should really be, you know, looking at somebody as a little bit more of a diamond in the rough and realize, you know what, we got plenty of time to train this person up to be the doctor that they want to be. They don't have to come in here with a PhD or a master's degree or all these other things. They're going to get all the knowledge, we're going to train them to have all the knowledge that they, that they need to have. And, and the fact is, the person who applies and gets rejected like multiple times and then they finally get accepted, I mean, I'm glad for them. But that's the same person that they were three years ago.

Yeah.

Why couldn't you have just taken them then?

Yeah, yeah.

You know, you, you kind of made them do drunk through all these other hoops and, you know, made the whole thing longer and really. And they're going to be the exact same doctor that they were had they started the process three years earlier. There's this article that I found that is. Let's see, let's see who this is by a guy named James Allen. This is from last July. It's called the down side of the gap year before medical school. And he has this graph where he goes through basically the, you know, the return on investment of medical school for md, you know, versus being a PA or a nurse practitioner. And so if you're a PA or a nurse practitioner, you know, you start off on these lines, well, you start making money way, way sooner than the doctor does. Now the doctor does make more money, but again, we take out a bunch of debt. And so the longer that it takes for that doctor to get to the point where they are, you know, where they're finally getting their return on their investment, the more likely it is that they may look at the whole thing and go, well, you know, maybe I should be a PA or a nurse practitioner. Again, there's nothing wrong with that if that's what you want. But I don't know that we want that being the way that people are making this decision. And he kind of says that like the, the lines cross. If you start the whole thing at a younger age, the lines cross around age like 33. But again, if you push that out longer, that line is going to cross later and later and later. Well, good lord, if it's not until you're 40 or 45 years old before that line crosses, then maybe it's practically dead. Right, right. Maybe that's so, you know, any. Anyway, I've, I've beaten a dead horse. I don't, I don't need to say this anymore. I just, you know, I would love to have somebody from medical school admissions, like, really come on and kind of address the topic. Oh yeah, yeah. So that if anybody knows somebody, let me know because I think I, I really would love to hear that. And you know, maybe they're going to tell me. No, no, we don't have any preference for people that are older or anything. People are just waiting to apply. And there is some of that where some people say, oh, gosh, you know, my application isn't good enough. I'm gonna, I'm gonna wait until it's really, really ready. Again, the expense of applying people, you know, sometimes it's just you only got one shot to spend all this money and do this thing. So that makes sense to make sure you're doing it at a time when you really have your best, best footprint foot forward. But anyway, that's okay. Rant. Rant complete.

Okay, yeah, no, I, I, I'm with.

You.

But man, I don't know at the same like the, just what it's bringing up and I understand this isn't your point is just like, is just like you and, and I get like there is a clock on some sort of stuff, but I do think that that's being pushed a little bit more just like the timeline on life and everything. And it's just, I don't know, I just feel like, especially like just bringing up a woman, like there's so much pressure on us to like, okay, get your career settled right now and then get married and then have a kid, like figure it all out in your 20s. And if you don't, then like you're, you're done for. So I, I, that is just. Which, it doesn't have to be like that.

I mean, this was kind of, what was the bill of goods that was sold to us. You can do anything. You can have it all. Well, that's not really true. You, you could do lots of wonderful things, but we do have, we are limited by biology. And it is harder to get pregnant the older that you get.

People freeze their eggs. Now, that's a huge thing.

You can, but that's a whole process. I mean, getting pregnant the regular way is a lot easier than having to freeze your eggs into all that.

But I'm saying there are more options now.

There are.

That's why people are like, people are doing that a lot more. Yeah, it's just gonna get better and better.

Well, I mean, I've just seen it happen where people are like, ask Heidi, Dr. Heidi Flag about this where in New York City she'd have these women that had these, you know, super high power careers and they were go, go going and all, everything's good. And then like, okay, now I've decided I want to get pregnant today. And then, you know, I mean, you can't just, it doesn't work like that. And then they would be so distraught and so frustrated because everything in their life, they always had this plan for, and this is the way it goes. And I'll do this, and I'll do this, and I'll do this. And then, you know, and then all of a sudden they're like, now I want to be a mom. And, you know, and, and ended up having, like, it can be very, it can be a frustrating thing. So anyway, I, I don't want to try to like, scare people and all that. I'm just saying there are some things that, that we as a society could do that's going to be helpful. So let's not try to make it worse on women.

Yeah. Do you have a lot of patients coming in saying that they're, they're like, all right, they're not an alcoholic? Because they do dry January. Is that something that people come in and say?

I don't, I don't really have too many patients that say that, but I do hear people say that. And I, I think that is something that people kind of believe. Now, to be fair, it, it's certainly a point in your favor if you can do dry January. You know, if somebody can go 30 days without alcohol, that's a good, that's a good sign. So I think they should be credited for that. You Know, as. As some of these people who tell you every two seconds that they're doing dry January, you know, I'm doing dry January. Oh, I can't do that. I'm doing dry January. That's me.

That's me currently.

That's you. The other thing that you can add in there, which, you know, many of my friends like to say, well, I can't do that. I've got a marathon coming up. Yeah.

So, see, that's what. Okay, so. But what do you think? Do you think that there's significant health effects for not drinking for a month?

I think it's good. Yeah. I mean, I think it's very. You know, alcohol really does a lot of bad things, particularly to your sleep, you know, to your nervous system, to a lot of things. So taking a break from alcohol, I mean, it even. You know, it causes more anxiety, it causes more depression. So a lot of that stuff, which it's. It's counterintuitive because people always think, like, oh, you know, I. I had a drink, and then my mood got better. Well, yes, it. It causes euphoria. It makes you feel. Makes you feel good, but then you don't feel as good the next day. You don't sleep as well, and then you wake up with your mood being a little bit worse than it otherwise would have after you're drinking. So going for multiple days in a row without drinking is really beneficial. People find their energy is better. Having said all that, I'm not doing dry January.

I am, and I'm committed to it, and I'll let you guys know how it goes. Also, just. It's My. My marathon is pulling me through. I'm doing it. I'll let you guys know how it goes. And, yeah, I do get what you're.

Saying about the people who are like, well, no, no, I'm fine, because I. I do. By January, I'm like, okay. I remember I had a patient who would quit smoking every. For a whole month. Every February. He chose the shortest month. Yeah. But he would quit smoking for the whole month. And then March 1st, boom, just start smoking again. Which I thought was so crazy. I was like, how did you go through all that withdrawal and everything? And, you know, and so he's just like, well, I just proved I could do it, so now I can go back to smoking. And I think that's.

That's a dry January. Yeah.

Yeah. And I do think there's. I mean, people do that. You know, alcoholics do do that on a regular basis where they. They. They Go without for some period of time. And then they say, see? Yeah, I don't have a problem. I can do that. The. I. I've learned all these phrases. Like, people will say, well, that person's just a dry drunk. Have you ever heard that? No. Basically, it's people who, like, come to AA and they have stopped drinking, but they haven't done any of, like, the work to kind of like.

Yeah, yeah.

Like, you know, and so they call it, like, white knuckling. Like, they're just white knuckling through. They're just like, I'm not gonna have a drink. I'm not gonna have drink, but I'm not gonna have drink. Walt. That just doesn't work long term. Then they get to some point, something happens. It's like, what? Ah, let me get a bottle of vodka. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, there may be a lot of people who are dry drunks during dry January.

Not me.

Not you. That's good. So then after your marathon, you can't really have a drink or anything right after because you're still dry January, or is there an exception after running a marathon?

Might be an exception, but the same time, I feel like I'm not really.

Going to want it. It's. It's funny when you're running the marathon before or, like, very. At the very beginning, you're like, oh, I'm gonna get to the end, and I'm gonna drink a beer, and it's gonna be so great. And then you're running along, and then you. You get there and you're like, oh, yeah, okay. And then you take, like, three sips, and you're just like, I just want to go home and go to bed.

Yeah. Yeah. So I anticipate that occurring.

It doesn't. It doesn't. Doesn't end up being really nearly as good as you. Kind of, like, imagine that it would.

Seem a lot of my friends are doing it and going to be there and stuff, so. I know.

We'll see. That's gonna be fun. Yeah. I'm gonna need to know all the friends that are doing it so that I can come out and cheer for all of them.

Okay, well, you know. All right, well, on that note, I'll let you know how my marathon goes, guys. We have some exciting guests coming up, and, yeah, you know where to find us on Instagram and Tick Tock Generations md. And if you have any questions or interested in being a guest on the podcast, you can email us ataskgenerations MD gmail.com and we will talk to you next week. Bye, guys.