I mean. I will see consults that others don't want. I'll call difficult patients two weeks after their discharge and make sure they went to their follow-up appointments. I'll spend a couple more hours at the hospital playing rugby with kids. I'll send some of my Stenn Award money to a kid in Africa. I am a good person.
And when I started at my residency program, I could see that the program director had kinda placed us in certain roles. One girl is the Outspoken Girl who will most likely become our class rep to get us better benefits and paychecks. Another is the Funny Guy who cracks jokes during lectures to make us all loosen up. An older girl is the Schmoozer, able to carry on conversations with the most dodgy and stuffy of professors.
So I figured. I am the Good person. Moral compass. Jiminy Cricket.
Until this happened.
After lecture last week, a few classmates and I were picking over the leftover food, deciding who would take what home. Armed with some sodas and a nice bowl of pasta, I started walking out the door when I saw Max.
MAX
Oh hey! You guys are taking food home?
ME
Yup! You sure you don't want any?
MAX
No it's okay. I biked. Wait, who took the sandwiches??
ME
Oh, no one.
MAX
Dude, those sandwiches are good!
And with that, he went running back to our classroom, presumably to claim the sandwiches for his dinner.
I went to my car, and took a while setting up my radio, fixing my seat and mirrors, and waiting to see if Martin would text me back that he was done with work at 5pm (unlikely) - so fifteen minutes later, I finally peeled out of the parking lot.
As I drove by the front of the hospital, I saw Max. Handing out sandwiches and bagels to the homeless.
And that's when I realized. Max is a Good Person. Because he is undercover Good.
So where does that leave me? I had half a mind to pull over and start handing out pasta right alongside him. But then I realized that there was traffic, and man, that pasta was really good.
