This has been the summer of Atul Gawande. I have read his articles, listened to his commentary, and appreciated his tweets about the World Cup and Wimbledon. It should come to little or no surprise that I read Atul Gawande pieces on a regular basis; after all, I am in a Comparative Health Systems course and Atul Gawande has written excellent articles that highlight the failings in our healthcare system and he looks to other industries to provide potential fixes for the system. The most recent Atul Gawande piece that I stumbled upon is “Piecework”– Gawande walks through how the prices for medical procedures are determined. It’s a fascinating read and upon reading it again I stumbled upon the quote that I used to set off this post: “To become a doctor, you spend so much time in the tunnels of preparation—head down, trying not to screw up, trying to make it from one day to the next—that it is a shock to find yourself at the other end, with someone shaking your hand and asking how much money you want to make.”
Tag Archives: medical school
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” ― John F. Kennedy
Change is good, they say. It’s hard to know in the moment whether a change is going to bring wonder and adventure or irrevocable regret. Here marks the beginning of what I think will be a glorious adventure.
Over the weekend, I moved to New Orleans. I stepped foot into the three bedroom I am leasing with my two roommates. New Orleans is very different from my hometown and extremely different from Princeton, New Jersey. It’s a noisy, musical town. Proof: last night when I tried to sleep, I heard a trumpet rendition of “Happy Birthday.” It was beautiful and…loud. This move means that I have to get used to driving again. This move means utilities and a landlord and grocery shopping. I’m in the process of setting up WiFi in the apartment; and so, I am currently camped out in Starbucks. I don’t tend to study outside of my room, so this is actually quite the change. This move means that I need to perfect parallel parking. Let’s just say that my parking is a bit rusty. This move also means that I’m in a culinary wonderland.
First meal in NOLA with my family! Absolutely wonderful meal at Houston’s. This is the wonderful Creole Barbecue Shrimp. I definitely recommend.
Transitioning to Medical School
This may be the first time that I have mentioned this here, but I love the #almostdoctor community. In short: it’s support, informed, and witty. I wanted to share with you readers (who are likely to be pre-medical students, less likely to be medical students, and extremely likely to be members of my family) the perspectives of other proud members the #almostdoctor community. Today, I am privileged to have Z (incoming medical student at University of Michigan) share with you the ten things that have her anxious about the transition to medical school. If you want to keep up with her journey, follow her blog (5 Year Journey: Medical School Edition) or her witty tweets.
As my frequent readers know, I love blogging via lists and bullet points. It’s easy, gets my points across, and generally manageable for readers. So, following that tradition, here is a list of things that I’m currently anxious and nervous about for my transition to medical school.
“The patient, though conscious that his condition is perilous, may recover his health simply through his contentment with the goodness of the physician.” ― Hippocrates
In two hours, I will begin the last exam of my undergraduate career. In five hours, the exam will be out of my hands. In six hours, I will sleep. In light of the end, which of rapidly drawing near, of my undergraduate career, I want to think about what comes next: medical school.
Last year, around this time, I was panicking about my personal statement: what could I write that would communicate how I felt about medicine; what would medical schools thing about what I wrote; how would I compare with others? I wrote an essay that was simple (no bells or whistles) and the process of answering the AMCAS prompt: “Why medicine” (paraphrased) re-affirmed my passion for medicine and my interest for public health. And so, I applied to programs with strong MD/MPH programs or medical schools renown for global health initiatives.
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
I started 2013 anxious. I was worried about the then-upcoming application process to medical school and whether or not my decision to apply to medical school straight out of college would be the best decision.
The moment I stepped into my first premedical requirement at Princeton, I made it my mission to forge close relationships with the other individuals in my class. Princeton is difficult! Being a premedical student at Princeton is difficult! Difficult journeys are not as bad when you have friends in the same boat. A lot of those friends are not longer interested in becoming physicians but many of my friends who still identify as pre-medical students have decided to take a gap year. And so (and rightly so), I was anxious.
Stilettos + Stethoscopes 