Some days are quick and easy. Some are long and laborious. Today was the latter. Well, not laborious in the sense of the labor that a farmer, lumberjack or the guys on The Deadliest Catch. I was sitting in a room with eight students, trying to orient them to a new clinical site, with an instructor that they only know from reputation, in a room that is cooler than comfortable. That type of laborious.

But I went into it with excitement and enthusiasm. I had all the necessary course documents in place, and was ready to handle every one’s curious questions. I had a full mug of coffee in my system. I was going to take charge!

However, my well-laid plans were thrown for a loop.  I met everyone at the main entrance of the hospital, introduced myself, and then turned to lead them to the orientation room. Cool and in control! Until one student caught up to me, gestured to whisper in my ear and told me, “Mr. LaRene. Your fly is unzipped.”

Yeah.  She was right. Now THAT is a way to start a new class! First impressions, et cetera.

I was able to laugh it off (and zip up) but that helped me transition to one of the important topics of the orientation. Communication. We need a constant two-way communication for a hospital clinical to succeed. And we all need to understand that while we strive for perfection, we will never achieve it. And how we handle ourselves when under stress, strain and embarrassment will help define who we are.

Mistakes happen. Vernon Law, former MLB player said, “Experience is a hard teacher, because she give the test first and then the lesson.” Hopefully I was able to demonstrate to my students how to handle an embarrassment.

At the very least, they got a good laugh out of it.

Official weigh in on Thursday morning. Will I achieve my goal? I’ll let you know then. We tried a new recipe tonight. Really good, quite filling. I hope you give it a try.