Only Time Will Tell

I'm 3 units in to the 4 unit Biochemistry Block and I'm feeling the pressure but at the same time I feel like I'm finding out how to deal with everything, even with it all coming at me all at once.

I find which subjects and professors need more time and effort to work on or understand, and that I don't need to sweat small group CDM because it's okay that I have no idea what's going on - we're not supposed to! It can be frustrating to hear that it's all about the process, and no, you don't get the answer, but it's a reminder that I'm going into a profession that doesn't have definitive answers like we do on our lecture exams. It doesn't replicate a real patient experience but it certainly breaks up the monotony of lectures; it gets pretty sickening sitting in that same lecture hall day after day, in the same row, with that same malfunctioning light just off to the left.

I'll take the time to hang out post-exam or on weekends, talk on the phone, or go to karate, because I'd rather miss out on a couple of hours of sleep than lose that sense of personal connection with actual humans. It goes a long way in keeping me sane. however, with relationships comes drama, and nothing shows that more than my relationships with my friends from high school and college. Once you don't see people everyday, it really takes effort to keep up the contact and for some it's easier than others. Even if we got along really well when we lived close by, if both sides aren't making the same effort, the relationship degenerates over time.
My ex-roommates have lost all contact, and I haven't heard from either for quite some time. When my college roommate stopped replying to my emails in January, I began to wonder about the nature of our relationship through college and how much of it was real or if it somehow wasn't as close as I had thought. It was shocking to see our relationship go from "let me know when you get back to the country so we can have a reunion/combo b-day party/etc. to not even an occasional single line email.
Close friends from high school have pretty much the same pattern - very little real contact until we find we're both back in Denver at the same time, meet up once or twice, catch up, see you next time. It can be amazing to see how much people have changed and what hasn't. People living out dreams, or doing things none of us would have even imagined - fashion design, TV writing, living in Antarctica, medical school, grad school, or marriage.
Friends from college have different patterns - many have become just facebook friends, a few have had occasional contact - an email or phone call once in a while, and some really feel like friends for life having really gone the distance to keep up, care about what's going on in my life and have me on the list of the first to know what's going on in theirs. Two of my best friends from college I still consider best friends now, and I can't imagine life without them. Though we've gone very different directions, we've each done a lot to keep in touch and visit each other. Now one of my besties is waiting anxiously to hear from grad schools in california and the other just got engaged!
Wow.
I look back and can barely believe how we all got here, but it's been an amazing ride so far.