I have changed the way I read. I take a semi-sharpened No. 2 pencil to underline choice words and phrases and scrawl comments in margins. Before this year, I would never.
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Now I scrawl. Wantonly. … More Gap Year, Week 47
Reindeer began nibbling the grass in our neighborhood just after Labor day. … More Gap Year, Week 46
Technically, still week 28, by a day. The 12-month gap, to bring any newcomers up to speed, spans from January 2024, when I was employed as a clinical geneticist, to January 2025 when I hope to be a writer, thought not yet daring to be employed. This blog is my opinionated memoir of the descent … More Gap Year, week twenty something
Now we wait. … More Gap Year, Week 26
Memorial Day is in the rearview mirror, and the summer of my Gap Year is officially here. This is shaping up to be the most important phase of the journey as I begin to seriously work on applications to low-residency MFA programs in creative writing. My heart and mind, though, remain anchored in clinical genetics. … More Gap Year, Week XXI
Welcome or welcome back to my travels between respectability and susceptibility. Less than three months ago I was an employed clinical geneticist. Now I’m the retiree ordering a cappuccino in the forenoon. This month my plans have been to focus on nonfiction, including medicine, but I have not been especially efficient. We took a week … More Gap Year -> Week Eleven
Truth is stranger than fiction. You can see here a beard (me) in a hooded sweatshirt. What is probably true is that it is my Hamilton College lacrosse sweatshirt, last worn in 1979, then saved in several generations of cardboard boxes and moved from Clinton to Baltimore to Boston to Bethesda, Tacoma, Seoul, Vienna (VA), … More Gap Year | Week 9
Ontology and cheeseburgers! Last week we skied Crested Butte (Colorado) and Taos (New Mexico) on bluesky mornings and afternoons, almost spring temperatures, to the point that a few snowboarders at the top of Siver Queen Express opted to honor their bravado and pectorales majores by not wearing shirts. No, I doubt they bothered with sunscreen. … More Gap Year: Week 5
I’m taking a gap year. Yes, I think I’ve earned it. Perhaps it’s more like a sabbatical. No, let’s call it a gap year. Such 12-month vacations didn’t become popular or common until I was well past high school graduation in 1973. Back in the early 70s, if you decided to knock around after 12th … More Gap year : week one
Scott D. McLean, MD 