The Conundrum of Medical School

As I reflect on the first semester of medical school gone by, I can in retrospect say that it was a good semester and that I'm glad I'm in medical school.  However, as the first week of the second semester begins I have already started semi-wishing I was not here.  There's an odd franticness to medical school material.  There is way more material than should normally be distributed to an individual to learn in the time allotment they gave us.  It is critical to figure out exactly how much you need to go through (because there are masses of additional readings that just sidetrack you from the material you need to know and would just cause consternation) and additionally critical to never fall behind.  At least, in my life, with the very few hours of study time available on evenings and weekends falling behind during the week would be catastrophic.  I also really miss my "free time." With my commute and my daughter, all my free time is used up in those two buckets with studying always being a bucket not as full as it should.  I miss my daily runs, getting to read books for leisure, and watching a movie every once in a while with DH. 
As I read some posts from residents about how stressful their lives are, it causes me to pause.  Part of me wants to rant against this crazy journey I have set out on.  I hate the commute, I hate the endless amounts of insane information, I hate the millions of hoops you just have to jump through.  I hate that this is a very long training path that stretches out into the far future.  But then I try look at it from a more objective perspective; no matter what path I choose, I would most likely be working and always frustrated about the time away from DLO.  In a lot of other jobs, I would hate the brain stagnation that would occur.  I will have the whole summer off this year, 4th year is just chock full of time off, and at some point I will have a career where I can help others, make a good paycheck, and hopefully be a good role model to my children.  See, that's what some sunshine and a rare run does for my mood, it brightens it and puts it into perspective.  While I am strapped into this ride and sometimes hate every minute, its hard to know if any other path would have been much different.  So on we go.  Grateful that one biochem exam is past (though still dreading getting me score), dreading the cumulative biochem exam in a few weeks but also looking forward to spring break and a while week with DLO.  We can do this!!!! Right?