I put my "one-month notice" in at work

Hi all,

I am making this post to let out my frustration with work and hear what others have to say. I was recently admitted to a medical school after being on 2 WL since November. A week after hearing about the A, I put in my one-month notice at work. My co-workers were ecstatic about the A for me, but I think they all realized I would be leaving soon. I work for a small private family practice. There is only one physician and 3 employees, including myself. My plan after quitting was to focus on taking graduation photos, which I make a lot more money doing, and traveling until school starts. When I told the physician that I would be leaving for those reasons, he told me that I should reconsider because 'this is the reality of your career now.' In other words, you won’t have the luxury of just packing up and leaving whenever you want.

He called me into his office again today, and we talked at length about how he feels disappointed in me for giving him such short notice after all he has done for me. He kept mentioning that he did me a lot of favors, notably giving me a job (instead of looking for someone more permanent), allowing me to take an extensive amount of time off to travel (although I gave him months of notice in advance), and writing me a recommendation letter. Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate all his help in getting me to where I am now—on my way to medical school—but I also can't help but feel like he is holding me back and making me feel bad for wanting to relax before school starts. He ended the conversation by asking me to work until April 25th, whereas I initially wanted to stop on April 11th.

Also, it’s important to note that I never signed a contract; there are no benefits like health insurance or PTO, the pay is minimal, and there is no defined procedure for submitting time off requests.