talk like a doctor and other life lessons

 

We learn things every day, in the most unexpected of places, in some of the oddest ways. Little nuggets of info we tuck away for another day when we will be very thankful to have hoarded that very memory.

Sometimes they’re a hard lesson learned. A slap on the wrist, a devastating mistake, a road we wished we hadn’t taken. We hopefully learn the lesson with such a steep price. If you’re mindful and keep your wits about you, you may only need to look at others’ regretful choices and their consequences to learn the lesson for yourself. The vast majority of people though, feel the need to earn that scar themselves before heeding the wisdom of the situation.

 

But today is about one of those lessons learned from a meaningless notion, a quick moment that caught my attention, made me laugh and made my neurons scream EUREKA!

 

 

Let me set the scene up for you:

CVS pharmacy – an older gentlemen walks in, talking on his cell phone and heads directly to the pharmacy where he paces in front of our counter while seeming to become increasingly annoyed with the voice on the other end of the line. When the technician working the cash register finally appears free from any other waiting customer, he approaches the counter, holds his cell phone out in front of the technician and says “Can you talk to her? Her name is Monica.”

This doesn’t surprise me. This same gentleman had just pulled the same stunt with me only 3 days ago. Monica is his wife and she is full of questions. He can give her the same answer to her simple question that I can, but she doesn’t believe him.

Classic old married couple syndrome ;)

This did however, surprise the technician who is trained to usually divert all clinical questions to the pharmacist. You could see it in her face as she took the phone that she was nervous she wouldn’t know any of the answers to Monica’s questions.

As they begin to talk, Monica’s husband grabs an emptied Altoids box off the shelf, scribbles on it and hands it to the girl.

 

“TALK LIKE A DOCTOR. SHE WON’T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE.”

^hahahahahahahahahaha!!!

I could have rolled in the floor laughing the next 5 minutes.

I kept that piece of trash by my computer and continued to spontaneously laugh at it all weekend.

 

 

{Yes, if you walked into your CVS pharmacy this weekend and saw your pharmacist bursting out in maniacal laughter in the midst of silence… that was probably me.}

{No, I am not insane. Possibly a bit ditzy, definitely a tad awkward at times, and whole heartedly sleep deprived. Which all should explain the slap happiness at a piece of trash.}

 

 

Besides being good for a much needed laugh in the middle of a 14 hour shift, it also got me thinking and reminded me of my own personal motto:

“Fake it till you make it.”

 

And when I say “Fake it”, I’m not talking about dishonesty or lying or falsely pretending to be something you aren’t. Just as the man who wrote “TALK LIKE A DOCTOR” just saw the look of trepidation on the technician’s face and knew the questions were simple, his wife just wanted to hear the answers from someone else – someone confident. NOT that she was to pretend she was an actual doctor.

 

For example:

• New pharmacist with a license for 6 measly months hired as a manager with absolutely no managing experience – grow some confidence and “Fake it till you make it”.
• New mother with little to no baby/newborn experience – pull your big girl panties up and “Fake it till you make it”.
• Throwing caution to the wind and taking on an exciting and terrifying “second job” in a new world you’ve never been a part of that will someday hopefully afford you more time at home with your little one – lose a couple more hours of sleep and “Fake it till you make it”!!!!

Whenever you’re scared and want to run from a new opportunity because of your lack of confidence, worrying that you’re not good enough or that someone else would be much MUCH better at it than little old you… I hope you don’t miss out on the experience and keep remembering to “Fake it till you make it” or as he put it:

“TALK LIKE A DOCTOR”

Which is now my personal favorite motto ;)