another neighbor
May. 31st, 2008 03:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liveonearthI met him on my way in from work. I have met him before---Jim, the gray-bearded bellied man who lives in the middle layer of the house next door. We talked briefly. He was going fishing. He loves to catch sturgeon, and salmon. Suzanne wanted to fish for sturgeon. Jim fishes for them at least one day a week. He says he has caught many. I tend not to believe anyone's fish stories until I see the picture.
He asked me what I do and I told him I'm in medical school. Then we have the fishing conversation, and then he got back to the whole medicine thing. In his mind he had turned my words around, I suppose because of my gender, and assumed that I am training to be a nurse. He was talking about how I would know all these wonderful things that doctors don't know. I told him I am not going to be a nurse. He said "You said you are going to nursing school" and I corrected him. It irritates me when people make the assumption that a female cannot be a doctor. But then I remind myself, the first time I heard the joke that challenges the assumption that a doctor is male, it got me too.
Jim was struggling to keep the conversation going and I was inching toward my door. I did not want to practice my naturopathic medicine elevator speech on him. I have spent years already explaining my bachelor's in holistic health. He had found one of my buttons and I was irritated at him. Thankfully the phone rang just then, Doctor Laura (MD) was calling. I said goodbye to Jim and went on with my day.
He asked me what I do and I told him I'm in medical school. Then we have the fishing conversation, and then he got back to the whole medicine thing. In his mind he had turned my words around, I suppose because of my gender, and assumed that I am training to be a nurse. He was talking about how I would know all these wonderful things that doctors don't know. I told him I am not going to be a nurse. He said "You said you are going to nursing school" and I corrected him. It irritates me when people make the assumption that a female cannot be a doctor. But then I remind myself, the first time I heard the joke that challenges the assumption that a doctor is male, it got me too.
Jim was struggling to keep the conversation going and I was inching toward my door. I did not want to practice my naturopathic medicine elevator speech on him. I have spent years already explaining my bachelor's in holistic health. He had found one of my buttons and I was irritated at him. Thankfully the phone rang just then, Doctor Laura (MD) was calling. I said goodbye to Jim and went on with my day.
