November top picks: A strange time to study medicine

While at medical school, the calendar’s 11th month—the year’s 11th hour—seems to be inseparable from the twilight treks from hospital to home. When you awake in the dark and leave and return home in the dark, daylight is a rare and precious currency—and the holidays are too far away yet to get excited about. Although I studied in the northwest of England, after a childhood spent in one of the top most areas of Northern Ireland, November still manages to take the wind out of me with the chill it brings to the air, yet the return of cold, desolate winters has a natural and acceptable rhythm to me. My friends have never quite understood my affinity for this objectively rather gloomy month. This year I have the added bonus of working on BMJ student and getting to know colleagues at The BMJ while I build confidence in my new role. Some of that confidence has enabled me to try new …