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--- I just finished my first semester of medical school, and as I look back I want to leave you with this charge. Lean into and enjoy the process wherever you are in your journey. You may be wrestling with a chemistry, preparing for the MCAT, or waiting to hear back after applying, but wherever you are, I want to encourage you to embrace the tension and to celebrate this season you are in right now. The reality is that the tension is never going to go away (sorry), but the lessons you learn today will stay with you. As you struggle through your current season you are putting down roots into the soil of your character, and in the seasons to come you will be able to remain rooted in those lessons to help you get through what is to come. What follows is how some of the concepts I’ve written about on this site have played out in my first semester of medical school. I am revisiting this little ebook of mine and writing this to give each of these my post-final-over-the-whole-musculoskeletal-system-and-other-fun-tests-gold-standard approval, but also to encourage you as you put down your roots as a premed. This content has served me really well, and in the same way the things you learn now you will take with you into the next season. I believed the content to be true when I wrote it as a senior, but this year I have put it to the test even more so and they have all held up. Embrace the lessons you are learning right now; if you sow well you will reap a crop that is far better. I made a lot of decisions during Prologue, Musculoskeletal, and Brain and Behavior. [My school divides content into system driven modules instead of distinct semester long classes; it is kind of hipster, but I've loved it.] Here’s a few of the decisions I have had to make: 1.) I started in the first few weeks and quickly (and slightly painfully haha) learned that my old study habits wouldn’t work in medical school. Thankfully though “In abundance of counselors there is victory” came into my mind as I was staring at those grades and I was able to get the help I needed. I still have a lot to learn about studying medicine, and even this week I am planning on trying to show my study routines to people more experienced than me and see if there is anywhere I can improve. I am really excited about how much more effective I have become; it is exciting to think about where my skill level may be by the time I graduate if I can keep improving how I study. (The Importance of Getting Advice and Studying: Continuous Improvement) 2.) “In order to do your best, sometimes you have to study less” has rung in my ears at some point probably every single week so far. Even now I am writing this on a Sunday afternoon with a gentle buzz in the back of my head telling me that I “should" be watching a kidney histology podcast. I am so grateful that I had that crazy season in undergrad where I learned that lesson now that the volume has ramped up. This first semester of medical school has been one of my favorite semesters of school ever, but I know that if I had not striven for balance then I would have a lot more regrets. (Balance) 3.) I am so grateful for Mercy Health Center on so many levels. Please, find somewhere you would want to volunteer even if you weren’t premed. The experience that made me officially decide I wanted to become a physician and the experience that in all honesty probably was a major part of the reason I got in is now the experience that makes me excited to get back in that library and hit the books again. It has given me a clear vision for why I am studying, and that is worth its weight in gold. More than that, even though I do not yet have a MD through volunteering I am able to work towards the thing that I am in medical school to do in the first place, and ultimately that is the point of this entire endeavor. In the words of Jon Acuff, “Start.” (Volunteer) 4.) Stress. You have to decide what goes in that blank. This is probably the biggest point on the whole site that has been affirmed time and time again this semester. That post’s significance for me personally is off the charts. (Application Stress) That is how some of these lessons that I learned in undergrad have played out for me in medical school. I hope this site has been helpful to you. As mentioned elsewhere, I still love trying to help premeds any way I can, so feel free to reach out to me if you ever want to get coffee. Best, -C
1 Comment
Caleb
1/10/2016 01:35:25 pm
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AuthorI am a premed senior at the University of Georgia, and I hope you find this blog helpful in your journey. Archives
January 2016
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