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Reading for Fun

Jennifer Anyaegbunam, Medical Student, 06:35PM Oct 11, 2011

I heard somewhere that the average medical student doubles their vocabulary during the course of their education. If the average English speaker knows about 15,000 words, that means I'll probably have a solid 30,000 words under my belt by the time I graduate medical school.

Since 15,000 words constitutes a vocabulary, medical professionals are capable of speaking another language altogether. Even though I've only been in medical school for 10 weeks, my vernacular has started to change. You really don't realize you are speaking an inaccessible language until your non-medical friends start looking at you as if you're speaking parseltongue.

I'm excited that my vocabulary is steadily expanding. I realize, however, that as an aspiring writer I cannot neglect the words I already know. Reading is one of the best ways to become better acquainted with language. I love reading because it helps me exercise old words in new and creative ways.

Last week my classmates and I finally had a week off for fall break. I spent a significant amount of time with the Hunger Games, which made me realize how much I miss reading for fun. In medical school, sometimes it's hard to justify reading for pleasure. If I'm alert enough to lose myself in a futuristic fictional world, or follow a heroine into battle, then I should be alert enough to memorize the stages of embryogenesis or amino acids or something.

The same goes for reading articles as well. Since starting medical school, I have not done a very good job of keeping up with the magazines, newspapers and blogs that I normally follow. My Instapaper is overflowing with articles that I promised myself I'd get back to (yeah...right). Over break, when I resurfaced in the real world, I felt really behind on current events. The world is constantly moving, and it waits for no one, even medical students! I feel like I need to do a better job of keeping up, lest I get left behind.

I don't know how long this is going to last, but I've challenged myself to continue reading. I think I can manage one article, or 10-15 pages of a novel per day, especially if I read right before I go to bed.

Wish me luck!

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." -- Dr. Seuss