Being A Gunner In Medical School

    During SPP, while reviewing parts of the cadaver, our rising M2 stated, "If you really want to be a gunner" before continuing to add in details that we weren't going to be tested on, but would certainly need to know in the future. My roommate and I chuckled at his statement to which he responded, "Being a gunner isn't a bad thing. Wanting to know more doesn't make you a bad person." When he said that, It really got me thinking. 

     Typically when anyone talks about someone being a gunner, it has a negative connotation because a gunner is someone that tends to go above and beyond in their pursuit of knowledge, and this often includes bringing people down in the process. When you hear of gunners in medical school, these are the students that sabotage their classmates in order to get the highest grade. I am certainly not suggesting that you become this type of gunner, but I do think being the type of gunner that our T.A. was describing is something that you should do.

     When I think about being a medical student, I think about how much of an honor it is that I've been selected to pursue this career and how it is a privilege to learn all the things that I will be learning. While in cadaver lab this summer, something that frequently crossed my mind was how incredible everything I that I was seeing was and that many people would never be able to see it. Of course, I know looking inside a body cavity would be the last thing many people want to do, but just the sheer fact that I got to do it blew my mind. If I've been given this incredible opportunity, why wouldn't I want to make the most of it? 

     So, in your academic pursuits, gun away. Take advantage of every learning opportunity, push yourself to acquire as much knowledge as possible because not only will it make you a great student, but it will also make you a better doctor in the future. One thing, though, never do any of this at the expense of another. Something that was incredibly evident while in SPP is how important it is to have a positive connection with your peers. After all, we are all enduring the very same struggle. One of my favorite quotes is "A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle." I believe this also holds true in the sharing of knowledge. If you understand something well, it won't hurt you to help a classmate. If anything, you are just reinforcing the knowledge. Also, something that might happen when people see that you work hard is that they give you a hard time. Let them say what they want. You are doing what you need to do, to become the person you want to be and not everyone is going to understand that.

     Hopefully, I have inspired everyone to get out there and slay whatever it is that needs slaying. Have a wonderful weekend and I will talk to you soon!

~Genesis<3

     

Worth and The Medical School Application Process

     The topic of this blog post came from a conversation that I had with my friend Alissa (My med student friend) about some of the questions the pre-med student that she advises had. One of the questions that the student asked was about feeling judged during the application process and that is what I want to explore a bit today.

Before Applying

    For most premeds, a common element in our preparation for our medical school application is the worry about everything we do being good enough. Are my grades good enough? Is my MCAT score competitive enough? Do I have enough volunteer hours? Was my volunteer site good enough? The list is never ending. Also, if you are like me and you go through a pre-health advising committee, the list of things you need to be a strong applicant is incredibly daunting. For us, the committee had broken down whether or not we should apply this cycle based on our numbers ( GPA, Science GPA, and MCAT score). Then each number was broken down into three categories: Red , Yellow, and Green. As you went from red to green, your chances of getting accepted were greater. For the yellow category (Where my numbers were), the numbers were right in the middle. My numbers were good, but by no means extraordinary. So, you can imagine my mild stress before even starting the application. 

During The Application Cycle

     As you are filling out your application, you really start to feel how much scrutiny will go into your application. You list all your grades, your extracurriculars, and then come up with something worthwhile for your personal statement. If all goes well the first two rounds, the interview is the ultimate test. Here, you'll have to show why medical schools should decide to accept you and you must do this within the limits of one interview. The scary part is you don't know exactly what they'll ask to gauge whether or not you're a good candidate. Then afterward, you'll hope that you said everything just right.

Looking Back From The Other side

     Now that I am standing where I am, It's crazy to think how I made it through everything. There were some weeks (following my first interview) that were very rough as I hadn't heard much from anyone, but I think that what helped me make it through was believing I had made the right choice. I knew that there wasn't a 100% chance that I would get in, but I knew that I had never wanted anything more in my life and that I wouldn't stop trying until I got it. I went in knowing that if this year didn't work out, I would try again next year. I am not sure that everyone that applies to medical school goes in with that mentality, but I do think that regardless you need to believe in yourself no matter what the odds say. The dean of my future med school said that this year they had 7,900 applicants, They Interviewed about 500 applicants, 300 applicants were accepted, and 160 will be attending at the Chicago campus. Crazy huh? What I want you to remember if you are about to take on this journey, Don't be intimidated by the numbers. Pour your heart into it, and I believe your passion will show. Also, having everything perfect on your application doesn't always mean that it'll work out. So, why stress about it? Medical schools have an idea of what they should be looking for, and that is something different for each one. So, as the AMCAS goes out next month keep that in mind.

     I wish everyone luck on their pre-med journeys and if you are just reading this blog for fun, I hope you've gotten a better sense of how daunting the journey to becoming a doctor can be. Have a great rest of your week and an even better weekend. I will talk to you soon!

~Genesis<3

Creating Balance In Your Life

     Looking back on my senior year of college, I had a full schedule. I was taking classes full-time, volunteering, working, managed to exercise, and still had somewhat of a social life. If you are a fellow Bio major, I'm sure you're wondering how I achieved the impossible. So, for this post, I want to share my tips to creating a balanced life and getting things done.

Step One: Organization

     In order to get things done efficiently, you'll have to have a plan. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I am a total planner. I can probably take it a little too far at times, but it works well for me. So, I do what I know. For me, my planner was set up in two major sections, the monthly view and then the weekly view. For the monthly view, I wrote down all of my major events (ex: birthdays, exams, due dates for papers/projects, meetings, and work hours). This way, I could look at my monthly view and then assess which weeks would be busier than others. For my weekly view, I would break down what was going on for that particular week. Here, I would write down smaller assignments as well as the major events that were going on. Another feature for my weekly view was my weekly post-it ( I'll talk more about my weekly post-it in a later section). My week view was pretty much my reference point for when I needed to get things done and it helped me to keep things moving along. If I was having a particularly busy week, I would sometimes break down my days into hourly sections, so I could visualize how much time I had and how I could use it. Now, you don't have to go into that much detail, but I would suggest having a general framework for your time. Knowing what you need to do and when you need to do it, will help you be more efficient.

Step Two: Prioritize

     So now that you have an idea of what needs to get done, you need to decide what is most important. On my weekly post-it, I would write down my tasks for the week in order of importance. This would help keep me from wasting my time on the paper that was due next week when I still had an exam to study for this Friday. There were some exceptions to the post-it, but in general, I tried to stick to it. Also, when glancing at my monthly view, If I saw that my week was manageable, I'd accept invites to social things. If I knew I had two quizzes, a meeting, a test, and a paper due the following week, I would stay in that weekend. There were occasions that I had to break this rule (i.e. it was my bestie's birthday), and during those weeks I tried to get as much as I could possibly get done Monday-Thursday. This wasn't always smooth sailing, but hey, that's life. 

Step Three: Use Your Time Wisely

     In general, I had a pretty good layout of what needed to get done when, but sometimes I'd randomly have little pockets of time and I'd use these to work on my post-it list. Even if I couldn't finish an entire task, I would at least try to do the ground work, so that when I went to do the actual work, it would be easier. Another thing that I would do was to make use of travel time. For my school, I was fortunate that I could rely on public transportation to get to places ( for me that meant getting from campus to my workplace), so I would make use of my travel time by going through flashcards or through some of my notes.

Step Four: Know When To Deviate

     I am all for being organized, but for me it is also super important to be able to live a balanced life, and a major part of that is knowing when it's okay not to stick to a schedule and go with the flow. Sometimes, I'd have a pretty set schedule, but something would come up and I would deviate from what I planned. Something that comes to mind when I think of this is a time that I had planned to go home after work on a Saturday so that I could work on some homework but instead, I took up a last minute invite to go see a movie I had wanted to see. When my friend asked me earlier in the week, going out on Saturday seemed like it would hinder my academic goals. But when she asked again on Saturday, it was totally doable. Also, there were certain days that I would just use my work commute to de-stress. Realize that in order to work like a well-oiled machine, you need to be human. If you're having a rough day, take a break to just breathe. As you get to know how you work, you'll know how to do this while still achieving your goals.

Step Five: Accept Imperfection

     I like to think of myself as an imperfect perfectionist because on some things I settle for good enough instead of obsessing over every detail. Working in this manner has helped to keep me sane and from stressing over things that I shouldn't. Of course, take things seriously, but realize that it won't be the end of the world if something doesn't get done exactly the way that you wish you would've. Were there times that I wish I would've done things differently? Yes, but I also tried to balance things the best that I could at the moment, and that was good enough for me.

     To all my pre-meds (and also non-premeds), I hope this post helps to guide you along a bit and also gives you some motivation to push through whatever you need to get done. I hope you have a fabulous weekend and I shall be talking to you soon!

~Genesis<3

     

How to Make the Most of Your Semester

     Spring semester should definitely be in full swing for those of you still in school (yeah, that'll be me too next year). So, I thought I'd share some of my tips to make sure that you get the most out of the semester and close out the year with a bang.

     For me, I'd say Senior year was the year that I had the whole college thing figured out ( It only took me three years, but whatever...), and I found myself feeling pretty balanced with what I needed to do, which was a lot. But, I'll definitely be the first to admit that by Spring Semester, senioritis was starting to kick in, so I needed to keep myself focused in order to make sure that I finished my college career kicking butt and taking names. Below are a few tips that helped me.

Become BFFs with your syllabus

     Not even going to lie, Syllabus week was one of my favorite weeks of college. Not only because we had a couple of classes where all the professor did was talk about the course, but because we got the schedule for what was happening in the semester. This meant that I could promptly head back to my apartment, whip out my planner, and write in all the important dates ASAP. Although you might not be a planner nerd like myself, I highly recommend doing this. It is really great to be able to know what your overall semester will look like and what the workload will be. It will also allow you to see what weeks will be the busiest and which ones you can have some fun. Mainly, I'd recommend putting in due dates, test dates, quizzes, and projects. If you want to write in what will be covered in your classes each week, that could be helpful too, but I never really did that as professors don't always stay on track with the scheduled topic.

Schedule in your activities

     Of course, this mainly means your extracurriculars but for me, it also meant my gym time. From my previous post, you know that I used to fit three runs in per week. So, what I would do at the beginning of the semester was figure out where in my schedule I could fit in the time I would need to run and make that my designated run time so that it was easier to stick to. Another thing that would be beneficial would be to block out your study times. I worked my last two semesters of college, so this meant that my weekly schedule could vary. But, at the beginning of each week, I would see what my week was going to look like, and I would designate where I could fit in the bulk of my studying.

Prioritize

     One of the most important parts of being productive is definitely learning to be strict with yourself. I know there were weekends when the last thing I wanted to do was spend quality time with my biochem book, but if it needed to be done, it needed to be done. This also goes back to my first point. You'll know which weeks this will be particularly important, so try to not schedule anything unnecessary into these weeks.

Plan Ahead

     If you know next week is going to be a hell week, try to get as much done before then. This will relieve a tremendous amount of stress for the weeks that you have two papers, a quiz, and an exam all in the course of a couple days. Even if you can only get the foundation work done, you'll be greatly thanking yourself.

Be Flexible

     I'm sure that you are well aware that life happens. Sometimes you have to make the time to go see a professor, or to help a friend, and you definitely didn't plan on it. That is perfectly okay. The most important part of organizing yourself is realizing that it is all just a framework and that you should use it as a guide, but also go with the flow adjusting yourself as necessary.

Remember to Have Fun

     I know that if you are anything like me, you will want to be able to do it all. But in the process of being awesome, know that it's perfectly okay to have fun. College is one of the best times of your life, so enjoy it all that you can! I know that now that I'm out of school, I am so happy that I took out the time for all the impromptu meet ups with my friends, or just occasionally breaking from my schedule to do something fun. It will help you feel rejuvenated and also more likely to stick with your plan overall. So, don't be afraid to have your occasional Netflix day. Grey's Anatomy on, my friend.

     I hope these tips were helpful for you! I know these are pretty standard, but it was what I used and it worked out pretty well. I hope you've been having a great week and I'll talk to you soon!

~Genesis<3

     

How Running Can Help You As a Pre-med

     This past week, I've been getting back into the groove of my running routine, and as I've been feeling the effects of my time off from it, I was inspired to write this post.

     About two years ago, I was inspired to take up running. I had never run a day in my life but I had always heard how great of a workout it was and I had always wanted to be able to do one of the fun 5ks that you see advertised everywhere. So, with determination and inspiration, I laced up my Nikes and hopped on the treadmill. Of course, to no surprise, running was difficult. Within the first couple minutes of running, I knew that it would take quite a bit of time before I was anywhere near ready to run a 5k, but I knew that it was something that I wanted to accomplish, so I told myself that this was something I was going to stick with. I fit a run in my schedule three days a week ( in-between classes) and I wouldn't allow myself to miss. I'll be completely honest, it was rough. There were days that I wished I could just go back to my apartment and take a nap, but that wouldn't get me any closer to running a 5k, so instead I would haul my butt over to the gym. Over the course of the semester, I got better at running, and by the time spring came around, I was out running on the path around campus. Then finally, over the summer, I was consistently running 3.1 miles ( a 5k) almost every time I went out. I was so proud of how far I'd come, but also surprised about the things it contributed to my life.

Things You Can Gain From Running

Mental Strength

- As much as running is a physical sport, it is also a mental sport. There are many times when your mind wants to give up before your body does, and you have to push yourself to keep going. This comes in handy as a pre-med as studying can get overwhelming and pushing yourself to keep going can be difficult at times. Running helps you train your mind to push through the points of giving up and helps you focus on achieving your goal. Of course, this is a great parallel for any part of your pre-med/med journey, as we all now how difficult it can be at times, but having the mental endurance to push through can greatly benefit you.

Perseverance

- When you are a runner, you will have your good days and your bad days. Sometimes, you kill it and have the best run, and then other times you can barely run a block from your start point. The most important part is remembering to not let the bad days stop you from your goals. The same mentality applies to being pre-med. If I had let any of struggles in class dictate my pre-med career, I wouldn't be starting medical school in the fall.

Patience

- Getting to the point where I was that summer took quite a bit of time to train up to, and more so because I didn't want to injure myself in the process. It might be a while before you reach your goal. You just have to take your training a day at a time and keep the big picture in mind. For anyone wanting to go to med school, this is absolutely true. I remember when I was in high school, the idea of spending an additional seven ( or more) years becoming a doctor was very unappealing, but now I am in awe that in just four years, I will have an M.D. at the end of my name. Great things take time to achieve and becoming a runner definitely reminds you of that.

Stress Relief

- I know this one is obvious, but for me running was a great way to relieve stress, especially while studying for the MCAT. I remember taking my break and going for a run. It allowed me to clear my mind and focus on something other than how I needed to do well on my test. I could then go back to studying recharged and ready to kick butt.


     Of course, there are more obvious things that you'll gain from running ( hello toned body!), but I thought these were applicable to being pre-med and worth a share. I also just wanted to have some fun with it, so I hope you found it interesting. I hope you had a great weekend!

~Genesis<3