Friday, Today, this glorious day, marked by last day of lecture as a first year medical student!!!
I honestly can’t believe how fast it all went. I truly remember the apprehension I had before my first exam. I remember looking at all my classmates and wondering whether I would even be smart enough to pass one medical school test…and its basically almost over. I’m not really out of the woods quite yet though. The Loma Linda University School of Medicine has made it their goal to completely exhaust us mentally and physically before they let us on our only summer break. They decided to do this by putting us through 2 WEEKS and 2 DAYS of FINALS! Check it out below:
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Needless to say, I will be quite tired when this is all over, but that is the thing…it will be over. I’m excited to finally be done with it. I can really understand why some medical student get really cynical about medicine after awhile. You work so hard, and you are constantly being tested and assessed; its like you barely get a chance to breath at times. And on top of that, its not just good enough to pass your tests..God forbid, you have to be at the top of your class so that you can honor Physio, Anatomy, Histo, etc. If you dare only barely pass your tests, than you will be relegated to family practice which is almost looked at as below nursing these days. And then, all the while..while you are studying hard, Step 1 is always in the back of your mind. You realize that no matter what you do during your first 2 years (even if you managed to honor all of your classes), none of it matters if you don’t destroy Step 1. But don’t stop there! Remember all of those activities that you did in undergrad because it was helpful for applying to medical school like being the president of the pre-med club or being doing overseas mission work in Africa? You can pretty much throw that out the window if you are going for the really competitive specialties. Altruism and leadership in that sense is not rewarded in those fields. Research, publications, and Step 1 is how you get to the top in those fields. So now, many of the things that you love to do (you know, the silly altruistic things like feeding the homeless and tutoring inner city kids) won’t really be looked at twice by Rad-Onc residency programs. So what do you do? Well you either fall in line like many medical students, jumping through even more hoops, or you say, “I don’t care”. It may mean that you’ll be relegated to those horrible primary care specialties, but at least you’ll be doing what you want to do. Depending on how this whole process works for you, and how you respond as you go through it, you can either get really cynical or you can realize that medicine is important but it isn’t the end all. I really believe that you have to have a goal and purpose that is more important than medicine to keep you going, because medicine will be disappointing. The field is not all that it used to be, but it is still extremely rewarding in many ways. Personally, I’ve learned that I could certainly be in the top 10% of my class, but I’m really not willing to put in the work that it takes. I’m quite content with my place and I wouldn’t want to sacrifice any more of my time for it. I think that every medical student finds the position that they are comfortable in; if you don’t you’ll definitely drive yourself crazy.
So yeah, I’m happy to almost be done. I’m still happy that I came to medical school. It can just be a little taxing at times.
For those college students who are anxious to come to LLU, I am happy to tell you that their building project is moving along quite nicely. I took a pic in case folks wanted to see. Also, below you’ll see a picture of the gimongous tents that they are putting put in preparation for graduation. I’m really happy for those med students who are finally getting to leave. That milestone seems so amazingly far away me.
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I should actually be studying now, so I’ll bid you all farewell for the next 2 weeks and 2 days.
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