Teenage Mutant Ninja Generations.

I wrote a flowery essay to get into medical school about eight years ago.  Within a bunch of run-on sentences, I wrote about my experiences with physicians and how each one told me it was a life of learning….learning from everything.

Fast forward to present times and ‘everything’ is needed to build my foundation as a pediatric resident.  With my little exploration blog-project, I’m going to let the compass run wild and chat about all the wacky mechanisms that leave me life lessons. And I’ll share some stories too. Here’s my first life lesson: I need to learn more about kids’ entertainment.

When handling the younger patients-

The lectures need to cover Twilight, Minecraft, One Direction, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, now in 3D. (In addition to asthma and sprained ankles)

In short, I think I am finally at that point where I can say “back in my day –“ to my loveable patients.

BACK IN MY DAY:

• Legos came in CITY, SPACE, and GARAGE-SALE MIXTURE YOUR MOTHER FOUND. From these three **then affordable** varieties, you built and rebuilt from the same, pre-Ikea-but-Ikea-esque directions.
• High School flirting/bullying came via AOL Instant messenger. I can still hear that piano-sounding message sign and the door opening noise – oh the anticipation of who appeared on your buddy list.
• We played “Minesweeper”, which I STILL confuse with Minecraft. And that game was inordinately difficult but it was either that or solitaire. Pick your MS DOS poison.
  • I met a absolutely jovial 8 year that got a Minecraft lego set for his birthday. According to the lego website, this awkward looking, $34.99 toy, has a limit of 2 per order, due to “overwhelming demand”
• Anthropomorphic, mutant turtles, with animatronic heads made for an Oscar-worthy performance in 1990’s, epic, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

So in essence I use the turtles and the above image as my barometer for how much has changed in the past 20 years. Even the advertisement is crazy…Drug use is an obvious public health detriment but do you think ‘saying yes to pizza’ is the best alternative? Well, with today’s trends, it may fly with a gluten-free crust, quinoa and kale.