Like a Buddhist acolyte, I was one step closer to Nirvana and the shrugging off of material values. But I needed to find a metaphor for my impending and frightening employment as a preregistration house officer. Searching for the yeti around Mount Everest would take too long, and I didn't really have enough thermals for a pilgrimage to a sacred mountain. It would have to be two days' white water rafting - reduced to 30 dollars, good price for you, sir. The more I thought about it, the more appropriate my metaphor seemed for work in a consultant firm.
Someone controls a small group of people, all scared.
The controller is at the back and rarely seen. Sometimes without warning they are thrown into deep water. But always there is someone there to help them return to the raft - their health, if not their dignity, intact. There are also relaxing bits of flat water where they can appreciate the beauty of their surroundings and the amount of progress they have made. So I signed up for this aquatic right of passage, heart in mouth and elastic around glasses.