Girlfriend was in first-year med school at the time, so that worked out just fine. I played some softball games on my regular team, but otherwise just nerded/ground it out for about a month.

It was fine, really. Lots of people go through way worse and come out fine; it’s nothing like being deployed overseas in the armed forces, as just one common example.

Yeah, some of my favourite experiences ever have been short term crunches. But it has to be opt in, and there has to be a satisfying outcome and stress relief afterwards or you just burn out.