So this week my department is having their first journal club meeting and I'm beyond excited !! And not just because we're going to get free food, LOL!!! It will be first time this semester I'll get to meet all or most of the students in my department and the faculty as well.
I also volunteered to lead one of the seminars so I'll be busy looking for something really cool and interesting to discuss. Of course, it will either involve breast or prostate cancer and the bioformatics tools used to study these diseases. This will also be my opportunity to impress a few adcoms since a few of them are in my department (And I did the research to find that out ;))
And that brings me to a topic of critical importance to supernontrads (over 40 premeds) like me. What are you actively doing to get yourself admitted to med school? Are you kicking back expecting a med school acceptance to magically drop at your feet or are you working to the MAX, whatever you have to work with? At that's the key, work to the MAX whatever YOU have to work with. For example, so what if there are no "good" schools for you to complete your preqs, what does that have to do with the fact that you need to make an "A" in your classes no matter where you take them? So what if you're the oldest in the class, do you act old? Do you blame mediocre grades on getting old? STOP making excuses for mediocrity and get with the "success" program!!!
PS- Please allow me to clear up the misconception that I've got everything under control in this premed process, because NOTHING could be further from the truth. I simply thrive in chaos to a certain extent which is why I rarely get up in arms about all the things I balance in my life including PhD classes, raising a teenager, running a business, studying for the MCAT, and an internship in Bioinformatics. In fact, most days when I look at my tasks surrounding school/my gig, I feel like I have to climb Mount Everest up hill BOTH ways, ROTFL!! But the sense of accomplishment I feel at the end of the day more than makes what I'm dealing with worth it!
In other words, if you're not enjoying this process at least some of the time, then you may need to rethink your motivation for doing it.
You are a busy woman, no, lets make that super busy woman. You kicked me in the but.. all I am doing is studying and volunteering in a hospital 4 hours a week and I volunteer in other places. I have no doubt you will get in a good MD or DO program. You are an inspiration.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lorena, I'm certain you'll be successful as well! I say it ALL the time, the folks who get admitted to medical school aren't the smartest, they're simply the folks will to consistently work VERY hard.
DeleteKeep up the good work super non trad! Stay strong and continue to be motivated by wonderful experiences as they happen for you.
ReplyDeleteThank you, I really needed that today!
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