the thing that i love so much about hospital playlist and resident playbook is that such a permanent fixture and important part of the narrative is that you are never too old to begin again, and that your life is not over just because it didn’t pan out the way you expected it to. yiyoung gave up on her medical career and flunked out of her residency, but her entire arc revolves around starting over and trying again, and slowly shifting her mindset away from constantly wanting to quit and only doing it for the money to doing it because she is a great doctor and she loves what she is doing now, the people she has found there, and how it doesn’t make her any less qualified than the other first-year residents. jaeil used to be an idol and his group disbanded, but instead of treating it like some great personal tragedy, it is simply a part of his life and career that he loves to look back on, still celebrates, and that brings him closer to patients and friends alike. it is never frowned upon that he decided to become a doctor instead of focusing on his music career, while he is simultaneously never treated as stupider than his colleagues just because he comes from a different background. then there is ahn chihong, of course, whose life had been set in stone during his service which then was upended by his sickness, so he decided to pursue medicine instead. he could have given up, he could have stayed in the military in some desk job, but he didn’t; he decided to change his entire life in his twenties and thirties, and now he is a professor of neurosurgery. and then there is jaehak, who is the oldest chief resident at yulje, which, sure, he makes fun of and others do to, but who is so dedicated to his profession and to cardiothoracic surgery, to the people in his department, that it doesn’t matter. he is in his forties while other residents are in their twenties and it makes no difference at large. even seokmin, who was chief resident of neurosurgery, quit his job but was allowed to return. hospital playlist and resident playbook are stories that honor the fact that life is not ideal, that it can take different routes to get you to your desired destination, that even tells you, hey, you might not have wanted to be here, you might wanted to be somewhere entirely else, but this is where you are and it’s okay. you didn’t choose wrong, and it doesn’t matter when you chose. it only matters that you are here now, and that is not a failure. you can always try again. it is never too late to begin.
yousharknotpass
snowghoul
titsay
baratheonpilled
jbbartram-illu
