Is med school life romanticizable?

Hmm, interesting. Romanticizable maybe isn't the right term...maybe more nostalgia inducing (how do you make that a verb?)

It absolutely depends on the person and their experience. I was a way better resident than I was a medical student, and had much closer friendships during residency than fellowship so I get misty-eyed about residency the most. The pacing of med school is different though too and may help people romanticize it, the difference between the preclinical years vs M3 means most people are going to find one or the other much more palatable. And M4 is a very cush, so if you're happy with your Match results, then looking back the M4 year is awesome and recency bias makes up for the misery before that.

Lastly, your time in residency is really not your own, you're almost always beholden to your patients, your attendings, or most likely your co-residents. There's limited flexibility, it's expected that you'll continue to perform despite personal illness/grief/difficulties/etc., and the "payoffs" aren't as frequent as you'd hope. That's really tough on many, many people, and something that is unique compared to others in our age cohort with "normal careers" where it's typically not a huge deal if you show up at 9:30 vs 9a or what have you. Even compared to med school, where every year but the 3rd is relatively structureless compared to the life of an intern.

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Is med school life romanticizable?