The end of the work week; thoughts on students.

Working with students is an adventure in itself. There is a huge range of abilities and I never know who I will encounter on any given day. They are here to become optometrists, ranging in age from 21 to 35. I am supposedly imparting my wisdom on them, since I have seen at least 20,000 more patients than they have.

What I hope I'm teaching them is confidence in themselves, listening skills, responsibility and clinical thinking. I hope to be one of those to whom they can ask any question, no matter how stupid it seems. And I hope never to be the one to beat them down or treat them poorly. God knows most of us can point out our own flaws.

Last night after work, I realised my shoulders were not tight. In fact, I was not sore anywhere. I was relaxed. And it was nearing the end of the week. I used to carry so much stress that my fingers would go numb sometimes, or my shoulder would barely move.

The internal relaxation is something I have been feeling more and more of since I've arrived in New Zealand. There are things about this job that might seem to be negatives. Maybe they are just differences again.