A Med School Memoir

It’s been a couple weeks now since the evening I came home to that big manila envelope in the mail. Even now, I’m still riding high on the post-acceptance wave of relief, mostly because I always thought chance of getting in was about as good as my chance of spontaneously combusting. But those fears are now laid to rest.

When I saw that bulky package peeking out of my mailbox, I think my heart skipped a beat. I knew immediately that it probably wasn’t a rejection, because rejections hadn’t gone out yet–but at the same time, I was doubtful that it could be an acceptance either. After all, the majority of acceptances for my school wouldn’t be out for another month. So it was with some nervous anticipation that I tore it open. I slid the top sheet out, and there it was, the sentence I had dreamed of reading for years: “I take great pleasure in offering you a position in the 2008-2009 entering Freshman medical class.”

Holy crap.

I’m not too proud to admit that I cried a little bit. Sure, I was ecstatic–but there was more to it than that. It had been a long road getting to this point, filled with self-doubt, worry, waiting. After all those pre-requisites, the chemistry and physics and biology, then the MCAT, then the stress of perfecting my AMCAS application, followed by the thousands of dollars spent on secondaries–despite all that, despite all the hard work and perserverance, I had been assured of nothing.

But all that uncertainty evaporated upon reading that one sentence. Years of effort finally paid off. Years of insecurity finally laid to rest. I am going to be a doctor. Even now, almost a month later, I couldn’t be more excited. This will be my med school blog. On this website, I will chronicle my voyage through med school, and then residency after that. Along the way, I hope to address some issues pertinent to medical students and pre-meds alike.

I don’t start medical school until August. Between now and then, I’ll be talking a little about my unique voyage up to this point, and I’ll also touch upon some larger issues concerning the medical profession. But for now, I’ll continue to wait. I’ve got several more applications out there–and I’m hoping to get at least one more acceptance. (But let’s just say I won’t be holding my breath–I know I’m lucky just to have gotten one!) In the meantime, feel free to comment on the site!

Additionally, if you have comments about the site itself, you can also me an e-mail.

Thanks for reading!

Tags:   acceptance · medical school4 Comments