Welcome to Series 20, where PAs and PA students from all over the US will descend on the unsuspecting city of New Orleans.

I probably shouldn’t be going. It’s not as if I have any money for these side quests. PA school is expensive enough. However, back when this trip seemed like a good idea, I knew going would mean cutting short my women’s health rotation. This felt like reason enough. Now that I’m neck deep in warm amniotic fluid, I’m grateful for my forethought.

Turns out approaching a mother-to-be in the 4th hour of labor and saying, “Hi, I am a student and would like permission to be in the room while you give birth. I will mostly be standing off to the side gawking as you experience unimaginable pain, scream loud enough to haunt my dream forever, and expel concerning amounts of fluids. Hopefully nobody dies. We can’t guarantee it. Cool if I hang around?”

They aren’t enthused, understandably so. Admittedly my pitch needs work. I mostly sit by the nurse’s station and watch the digital clock tick. It ticks slowly in obstetrics, probably the only thing me and a patient in labor would agree on.

But New Orleans! A city with a rich history and questionable decision-making, juxtaposed against the algorithms of medical science, with the energy of type-A young professionals whose parents are out of town, and a complete absence of expelled placental tissue, this is my wheelhouse.

Come with and explore the city built below sea level and above reason. We depart Friday.

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Let the good times roll.