Rumspringa! That sounds delightful — let’s order a round for the whole table and don’t forget the little umbrellas. What’s that? You don’t serve those here?
Children raised in Amish communities are expected to adhere to strict moral codes up until adolescence. At that point, they get a pass: they have entered Rumspringa (literally, “run around”).
Every summer, new attendings across the country undergo similar temptation to defy the customs of their long-observed frugality during White Coat Rumspringa.
On receiving your first real doctor paycheck, you are suddenly granted unrestricted access to a lifestyle of luxury that your resident remuneration had excluded.
In contrast to the success of the Amish, White Coat Rumspringa is far less effective at keeping newly minted physicians true to the frugal code that served them so well for so long.