Reflections on Four Years in Medical School #BehindTheBlogger

This Is My Life: I graduated from medical school 4 days ago. It honestly still doesn’t feel entirely real.

From finding out that I’d been accepted to medical school to our white coat ceremony, taking/passing my boards to graduating, it’s been a pretty crazy journey.

It’s been an incredibly long and hectic journey, but in the midst of it, I’ve had the fortune of meeting and befriending some of the kindest people I’ll likely ever know.

Although it’s been challenging (oh, sacrifice), I did get to see more of my friends and family in the past couple months than I have in the last 5 years combined, so I’m definitely glad for that!

My pre-clinical years were a little rough–I’ve never been the best test-taker, and halfway through my first year, I had to redo my entire studying method because I kindasorta lost my original study buddy. Thankfully, I discovered the catacombs and befriended the HBLer’s + 1* (so named because all but one of us didn’t go to class).

*”HBL” stands for Home-Based Learner. We’d actually still go to school to study, but we generally wouldn’t attend class unless it was mandatory.

Things got better once I found what worked for me again, but there were moments–particularly in 2nd year (and whilst studying for boards) where life really, really sucked. I definitely drove home crying a couple times because I thought I was seriously going to fail out of medical school.

Clinical years were awesome because we were finally released into the wild and allowed to interact with human beings again. My biweekly/monthly schedule was at the whim of my preceptor(s) so it got a little crazy sometimes, but they were infinitely better because they reminded me of all the reasons I went into medicine, and also gave me the practical experience that I needed. (I’ve always been a better kinesthetic learner vs. audio/visual.)

I actually managed to graduate with an 87% average! :D It’s definitely not close to the best it could be, but considering all the things I’ve gotten to do aside from med school (that I never thought would get to happen–especially not in med school), I’d like to think it’s pretty good!

For instance…

• Being first-assist on all surgeries and doing all the closing stitches
• Working the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA
• Assisting with knee + hip replacements
• Attaching pieces of skull with a screwdriver and watching an awake craniotomy

Volunteering at an animal rescue

I talk about Please Save A Cat a lot, but it’s for good reason! I started volunteering here in the spring of my first year of medical school. Linda and I hit it off right away–the first time I stopped by her cat rescue was a Saturday afternoon after I’d just left church, and I ended up staying for 5 hours just talking with her and helping with all the kitties.

I actually managed to volunteer about as many hours in medical school as I did in undergrad (~650+…I kinda lost count, haha)! :]

Teaching Hula

Just for fun, I decided to teach a short hula for one of the events we were having in order to raise money for a medical service trip, and a couple other students asked later on in the year if I could offer weekly classes–tis how I randomly came to start teaching beginning hula lessons at my school’s gym!

• International Festival 2013
• International Festival 2014
• Follies 2013
• Follies 2014

Joining the Greenbrier Valley Chorale

I really missed having music in my life, so I auditioned for the Greenbrier Valley Chorale and made it in as a second soprano! We had fall and spring concerts at Carnegie Hall. I even got quoted in the paper! :P

Starting a band and performing at Carnegie Hall

I’ve always dreamed of forming a band, but never thought it’d actually get to happen…but two of my closest friends in med school had the same dream, so we found another fellow med student who was a bassist and became…The Vagal Tones!

I was the keyboardist/backup vocalist (+ percussionist for one song)! :]

Living on a farm

I’ll have a separate post to this at some point, but I’ve been talking for years about starting/living on a farm…and I actually did get to live at one! :O I’m really going to miss it here, but I’m also really excited about starting the next chapter of my life!

• What’s your learning style?
• Guess how much student debt I have?!
• What makes you, you?

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