Nothing keeps me busier than when these four kiddos come to visit! The highlights of their days include Magic School Bus, fish sticks, swimming pools, playing the floor is lava, and anytime a slushy is involved. The highlight of my day is “quiet rest time” when they don’t have to nap but they have to sit still. They do funny things to get around it, like crawling very very slowly, playing “very still” tag- which turns out to be not very still at all, and repeating everything one of them says until that one person is crying. I also like helping them with their summer math and reading practice more than all of them like school combined.
I was always much more into school than they are. Maybe because having three other siblings that close in age is more fun than anything school has to offer. I’d probably be the same way if I had had several roommates to play with. It’s a good thing that they are staying juvenile as long as possible. When I was the twins’ age, (8) I feel like I was pretty self-sufficient. I could make my favorite meal by myself, stay home by myself, and bathe myself. I want them to stay young as long as possible. Though, I do admit being an adult is a lot better. Being as independent as I was, I got frustrated a lot when I got to preteens and teen years and people were still telling me when to go to bed, and how much I could eat. With these kids though, they would eat nachos til they puke, not bathe for 6 weeks and watch TV until their eyes bleed, so I’m glad they still depend on us to take care of them.
With the kids come new germs my body is unfamiliar with so I have the beginnings of an upper respiratory infection. It always comes on the same. I wake up with a sore neck in the back, sore lymph nodes beneath my jaw and a painful throat with no cough. The second day I get an even worse sore throat, a puffy face, and a nice stream of mucus down the back of my throat that makes me not hungry and feel like I could gag at any minute.
I usually nurse one dose of Dayquil liquid for about ten minutes every 8 hours. It tastes terrible but its good at coating my throat.
Despite the oncoming full-blown infection, I went out last night to meet some future medical schools classmates. We were going to go to a minor league baseball game, but it got rained out. Instead, we watched the Thunder game at a sports bar called Leon’s. It was super loud whenever Thunder swished it, which I thought was cool. I went even though I didn’t know anyone else there. Everyone was super chill, friendly, and funny. Several guys brought their wives or girlfriends, which I thought was cool. You get to know more about people on a deeper level that way.
We met up through a Facebook group, so the joke of the evening centered around a guy on Facebook who couldn’t find where we were sitting. One guy went around the bar trying to find “Matt” who none of us knew. He asked a bunch of strangers and people that looked alone or lost. It kept getting funnier because people were walking around and people kept yelling “Are you Matt?” One person held up Matt’s Facebook profile picture and yelled, “If this is your picture, sit down!” I thought it was hilarious.
Some second years asked if I was excited to start with a skeptical look on their face. I told them I knew it was going to get scary really fast but that I really was ready to meet everyone and see what its like. I do still want my FULL summer first, though!
We also talked about where we were when we got “the call”. I think its something that everyone remembers. One guy said he was at work at a clinic and his boss was a doctor so he let him answer let him leave early too. Mine was during class. I stepped out for a minute and called OSU back after I got the missed call. Unable to stop smiling or silently shrieking, I ran back into class and yelled to everyone that I just got into medical school. It was a good moment.
Speaking of getting into medical school. I got an email this morning that I have made it off of the wait list into OU med. It was surprisingly uneventful. Having already made so many plans at OSU, I entertained the idea of actually going to OU for about 3 minutes total, (but man those mods are nice). I’m happy and proud that a great school like that would offer me a spot, but ultimately it came down to a technicality.
Getting an interview somewhere means you are qualified to go to the school. Getting on the wait list means that your arbitrary “score” with the interview considered wasn’t high enough to get an outright offer of admission. Basically it means that you didn’t completely blow your interview, but they aren’t ready to let you in in case they can get someone “better” in their sense of the word.
Getting off the wait list just means that enough of their “preferred” people have accepted offers elsewhere, so they’ll “allow” me in more or less.
It was different for me at OSU. I felt valued as an applicant from the moment I started dealing with OSU. Like they were saying “Thank you for considering us,” to me. And when I was wait listed, I still got a personal phone call and was welcomed to send them updates on what I was doing. Then, I found out that like dating- OSU wanted me to want them too. (My physician mentor that’s an OSU alum looked at my file, saying that I applied to OU. Since they figured I would get in there too and pick there, they didn’t make me an immediate offer.) So I sent in a “letter of intent”, and a week later I got in.
It’s a shame that something this important to my life comes down to games like this that both OU and OSU play. But that’s the way it goes.
Maybe I’m too prideful to accept the offer from OU when I seemed to be a second rate choice. Regardless of the reason at the heart of it, I know I’d have a good time suffering for four years at either school. Like so many other things in life, it comes down to it being what you make of it. I’m sticking with OSU, though, because it already feels like home.
Month: May 2014
Categories
Nocturnal People
I’m pretty sure I am permanently a night person. If I wake up by an alarm I HAVE to have a nap that day or I get very sleepy around 1 to 4. If I wake up on my own around 11:30 (after going to bed at 2:00 AM), I don’t need a nap!
Source
I’ve been a late night person for as long as I can remember. I stayed up late talking to my sisters when I was little. When I was in high school, I did my most productive homework (and watching Jimmy Fallon before he was on The Tonight Show) from 9PM to 1AM. College, well, you get the picture. Everyone stays up late in college. But, I am always sleepy in the morning. I envy the people that can wake up before 9 in the morning and actually feel okay about getting out of bed. I get sick and cranky easier when I’m running on low sleep for days at a time.
I have had big plans many times to be the type of person that goes to bed at midnight, wakes up at 6, goes running, showers and then starts the day at 8. No dice though. I plan to try again an get into a routine that I can handle and carry that into medical school. I want to be sure to get good sleep and a good workout at least 5 nights a week to stay healthy and sane.
Right now, I usually shower at night after everyone else is in bed. If I run, I do it at night, before my shower. I’ve heard it takes 2 weeks of getting used to a new sleep/wake cycle and you just have to get through it with no naps or extra sleep no matter how tired you are and then your body gets used to it.
I’ve also done some research on “alternative sleep cycles” in the past. Of course, I love the whole 8-hours-of-sleep idea too much to ever try this but I still can’t help but wonder if it actually works. Anyone ever seen any of these in action or used them yourself? Doesn’t seem like it would be healthy or sustainable. Plus who has the kind of life that allows for a 20 minute nap every three hours, besides newborns? That’s whack.
We’ll see how my plans go. I’ll probably lower my expectations and have to work up to the waking up at 6 thing. Even when I have 8AM classes, I wake up, oh at about 7:47.
Sleep is the best.
Categories
Capstone Essay
My room is mostly finished! Minus some wall art and some diploma[(s) now!] that I haven’t hung up.
It’s much more subdued, neutral, and calming now, which will be good for medical school in 2 months, 8 days! My favorite part has to be the window area which I added twinkle lights to at the last minute.
Anyway, my final for my capstone class was to write a reflective essay looking back into our science education. I ended up really liking mine. So, here it is if you want to see how I got through OBU science. I wish I had gone more into my calling to medicine and how I knew all the suffering would be worth it, but I focused mainly on the science instead.
“Some would see my choice to attend a Baptist university as a way to limit my education, my world, and my views, but in fact the opposite has proven true. The last four years have opened my mind to knowledge I did not know I could have, questions I could not fathom, and wonder I didn’t know was possible. Personally, I have grown. My general education classes have taught me a great deal, but it is science where I have learned the most. I think a good objective definition of science is that it is the body of knowledge we have about the natural world through systematic experiments and observation. Science is how the world works. However, being a student of science has taught me so much more than that. For one thing, I’ve learned how vast the world is, and how small I am. Being a science student has strengthened my faith and allowed me to question things about my faith that I had never considered. Four years ago, I blindly accepted my faith in God and blindly accepted the science I was taught as well. Now, I question both, and am able to find the answers; answers that I can flesh out and struggle with and understand better in the end. I am also okay with not knowing the answer, which is something that I do not know I could say as a freshman. Science has become a big part of my belief system and a part of finding my purpose in the world. In order for me to be a part of science, I have to rely on the assumption that science is making the world a better place overall. I want to be a part of the kind of science that does good for people. My favorite lessons in science are the ones that have left me speechless and astounded in awe of my Creator. Some other favorites include those that I have learned from listening to my classmates’ views and opinions.
The biology program at OBU broke me down mentally. I switched my major from undeclared to biology after I had already begun as a freshman. I was only in the department for three years, but it has been grueling. I remember driving home one school night as a sophomore because I couldn’t take it anymore. I was done studying. I considered dropping out or transferring. My friends from freshman year have had nowhere near the workload I have. I spent hours and hours sitting down studying by myself. I hate sitting down, and I would much rather be with other people. Looking back, it was nothing more than a hard adjustment, because the payoff has been so much more than worth it. Then, again in my junior year- I was taking physics and organic with the sophomores- I hit another wall, hard. The workload is ridiculous and my grades were not showing the fruits of my labor. I was flailing. I wanted to quit again, but I relied on what I knew I had already made it through. Though sometimes I hated science, it helped me realize my potential and to continue to face adversity, knowing I could handle it. After I turned in my Organic 2 final, I cried in Dr. Malmberg’s office asking him why he had to make it so hard, and why I studied and studied but my grade was so low. He put it simply.
“So that you realize your dependence on God.”
I am extremely aware of my dependence on God because of science. But I also know now that when I resolve to do something, I can do my best no matter how much it will take out of me.
As a runner, the worst part for me is right before a race, at the starting line. I know what I have to do to hit a personal record, and I am aware that I am going to hurt. My legs will beg me to stop; my lungs will feel like they’re going to burst. I get afraid that I won’t be able to make it and I slow down. Every time. Now, headed into medical school, I am at the starting line of a whole new, rigorous program. Just like if I were running, I should be scared. I should be bracing myself for the “hurt”, but unlike in running, I know that I can make it through. The science program broke me down, but it has built me back up stronger than I was before.
I had never explored science and faith together before my four years here. The two remain separate and non-conflicting. Science is what is physical and natural. God is metaphysical and real but not able to be proven by the methods of science. Still, in my mind, the two feed into each other. My relationship with God is fed by the awe I experience when I learn. The intricacies of cell biology and genetics have changed my life. The volume of activity occurring at the microscopic, even molecular level continually blows me away. It’s so orderly. The amount of things you can learn about one infinitesimally small process in a cell, is completely mind-boggling.
Science’s role in society has become evident to me mostly in this past year. I have realized through capstone, being accepted into medical school and our non-textbook readings in developmental biology, that my science education has a lot of implications for the world around me. One of my favorite memories is a vaccine discussion we had in capstone. As a class, we examined our views from the perceptions of the opposing views, or the views of a layperson, who does not necessarily understand the hard, scientific literature we cite for our own opinions as scientists. I could discuss things like that all day long. I love challenging and discussing ethics, arguments, and science. I am excited to use my unique point of view and scientific education to better understand the people around me and especially what they believe and why. In developmental this past semester, we also spoke about the importance of popular science and writing. The Annie Dillard and Scientific American readings have inspired me to use my writing voice in science somehow. Of course, I also hope my medical education and further scientific endeavors will have some impact on society, even if just within a community.
These four years have taught me so much in terms of sheer knowledge- objective fact. I would be proud of my degree if that was all I had obtained during this time in my life. Perhaps, more than that, I am proud of what has happened to me on this journey. I share a bond with my fellow science students because of what we know we have all lived through. I have had my mind opened wide and want to fill it with all that I can. I am stronger, more assertive, and more sure of myself. I am a scientist now. It is a title, I did not know I wanted. But, I smile every time Dr. Jett refers to my classmates and I as scientists. I will always cherish my time at OBU and forever consider myself a student of science.”
To start off summer, I sat down for .05465 seconds and then got up and unloaded everything. As I went through each box I thought back on what I had used in the past year. I sorted everything into five piles and then reorganized everything I kept.
The five piles:
1) Trash
2) Recycling
3) Clothes to go to consignment
4) Donate to Goodwill
5) Sell on Craigslist
My room was a pit! College life exploded all over the house!
Not long after I went through everything, we decided now was as good a time as any to paint the study room and my bedroom. My room is a really bold color I chose back in high school so I wanted something more serene.
Since the walls are so bright, we had to prime first. Not to mention some holes we had to patch. Ta DA! The not so finished product.
We are still working on it.
Here’s the color for my room, although the internet picture looks nothing like the swatch I have, so we will see how it turns out.
And here’s the study room swatch.
I’ve always been really into the meanings of different colors like how yellow is cheerful and red can be anger or passion. But, what do light tealy-grays say?
Amidst my productivity, I gave my dog, Copper a bath. He did not enjoy it, so to get back at me, he came into the room where I was priming right after and laid down lengthways along the wall where I had just cut in around the baseboard and got paint all down one side of his back. He’s a stinker.
When this happened, I then had to quickly escort a very squirmy dog outside without getting wet paint all over the carpet and furniture. Success!
Anyway, something that always strikes me when I do projects in my dad’s line of work (home improvement)- and even cleaning/organizing- is how instantly gratifying it is when compared to school work. You study and study for four months before you receive one letter grade. In a little bit of time you can get a whole lot of work done and the results are visible every step of the way. I like seeing the fruits of my labor every step of the way. I like it sometimes. It’s a nice change of pace. I also like getting my hands dirty and not letting myself get too lazy during my lazy summer. Work can be fun guys!
Categories
Graduation
I have become a college graduate in the time since we last spoke.
I thought that I would feel different afterwards or be sad or overwhelmed the day of. It was a fast-paced day of places to be, family arrivals, and I was also moving out of my apartment to go back home the same day.
It didn’t feel overly surreal and thankfully it was still a fun day with my family despite a 2 hour ceremony in a hot chapel.
I only teared up twice- once because my favorite professor was giving the commencement address and once when my mom found me after the ceremony and started bawling.
I was so glad and proud to have my family there, and my nieces did so good in the audience. Way to go girls!
The rest of the event is best described in pictures. There are no pictures of the actual ceremony because my dad doesn’t know how to focus. Half of everything saved on the SD card is a one second video because he didn’t know how to get back to picture mode. Parents…. sigh.
The night before I last I couldn’t sleep because I was so excited for two reasons.
1)I’m still in the old college town waiting for graduation but I didn’t have any finals the next day so I got to sleep in. I love sleeping in.☺️
2) After I woke up, I got to go pull my eight year old niece out of school an hour early to go on a date with me.
They don’t know how excited I get just to see them.
They don’t know how cool I think they are.
They don’t know that I really do still think of them like they’re 18 months old toddling around. Them running away from me tickling them but still within reach that I could wrap my arm around their pooched bellies and pull their whole body back with just one hand.
They don’t know that I think about them all the time. That I hope with all my being that I can help them along their way, and be just what they need from their aunt.
They don’t know how much I love just sitting with them. Especially if they’re piled all around me.
The other day at Ross I probably creeped a little girl out.
I had one of those slow mo moments. I walked down an aisle. At the end of the aisle in the main path, I watched a man pick up this little girl. She was probably 3. I stared. It was just the way he picked her up was so smooth and familiar. And her response. She wasn’t looking at her dad. She had her thumb in her mouth and was looking straight at me. Once she was up it took exactly no time before her body was perfectly contorted to be completely wrapped around him. You know the hold. She was propped slightly on his side, instantly resting her head on his should. His right hand under her seat, his left supporting her back, laying her up against him. One fluid motion. Him, made to pick her up and hold her. Her, made to fly straight up and be held.
I kept staring and the girl stared right back. I instantly ached for my Julie, who is still just that size.
After Stevie and I had a [relaxing] blast, I took her home and her three sisters were watching a movie. They all exclaimed my name. Julie hopped off the couch and yelled “Andi!” extra enthusiastically and threw her arms up in the air, running toward me. Like I was made for it, my hands go under her arms as a squat down a little, pull her up in the air. Muscle memory brings her to my torso and instantly she is wrapped up in around my whole body. One fluid motion. A hurricane couldn’t tear us apart. It feels so good. To be able to hold a whole tiny person. To have them hold you just because they get to see you. My heart soars.
That is what being an aunt to these five girls feels like. All. The. Time.
Yesterday I was faced with every senior’s dream come true…
A pass/fail (hard) class with a final I can get a zero on and still pass. I can literally walk away. Unscathed. Scot free.
I rejoiced. I bragged to several people. I mentally told myself that I do not have to study at all for that final, giving me a completely free evening. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that I had perhaps already taken my last Malmberg test.
I considered not even going to take the final. I entertained the idea of not studying. Both are opportunities I have only dreamt of having in my four years here. This does not happen in the OBU science department. Even if your grade is good enough, you dare not skip a final because you will undoubtedly have that same professor again next year and you do not want them to have a bad view of you. I’m telling you this so you realize how big of a deal this is.
So, here I was faced with this exact scenario.
Pretty quickly, I decided I would go take the final and just not study.
I sat idle for about 2 minutes. Then I picked up my book, got out my notes, and studied- hard- for about 6 hours.
I know. I was surprised as well.
I studied it while I ate snacks, I studied while I watched TV. Each time I got up to pee or get a drink, I picked it right back up without dreading an evening of studying. I did it because I wanted to.
Suddenly, when presented with the opportunity to either learn optional material or just sit and be ignorant, I decided to learn. Maybe I am frightened of being unprepared for a situation I have control over. Maybe I care more about what my professors think than I say I do. It could be many things. It is not, however, because I am an overachiever or a star student. I doubt I will even do that well on the exam.
It’s because whatever else I am or am not, I will not settle for less than the best of whatever I can do right now in the moment. I am a doer.
This is something my dad will tell me he knew was true all along.
But it’s revolutionary for me, going into medical school, afraid of already being burnt out on school. Now I know that however much I’m beaten down, however bad my confidence suffers, however much work I have to do, that I would still rather do the work than have nothing to do at all. I want to know all the things. And apparently I can’t rest until I know I’ve made progress in that endeavor.
Bring it on med school
Categories
Medical school budgeting
Med school is such a unique little niche of life that I don’t often find the answers I’m looking for when I google a specific question to see how other people do it. Med students aren’t necessarily known for writing, sharing tipsy and being involved in social media publicly but I think we should be. I soaked up every bit of info I could find about applying, schools, pre reqs, etc because it’s always helpful to know other people are going through the same things. Still, I usually can’t find anything on what I need aside from some occasional articles on the AAMC, which are so broad and vague that it’s not always helpful.
Anyway, now that I’m in, I guess I’m seeking advice and guidance on how to budget for this endeavor. In addition, I guess I’m offering my personal budget outline (which I’m sure will evolve) in case anyone else is wondering how other people are managing the loans.
Why I personally need a budget:
1) I’m a planner
2) I love organization
3) I love lists 🙂
4) I will receive a lump sum at the beginning of the semester which means it needs to last ALL semester.
5) Number 4 above scares me. If I overshoot or undershoot how much I need it’s bad.
6) Oh my gosh what will I do over the summers?!
Expenses I am responsible for:
1) My car payment ~$300/month
2) My car insurance ~$800/6 months
3) Tuition ~$21,000/year
4) Books, supplies, education costs ~$8000/year
5) Food (living with my parents, I will probably only be responsible for lunch most days and if I go out on weekends) ~$200/month
6) Gas ~ still figuring this one out with my new car and all
7) Fun/shopping ~???/month
As of right now I don’t have my scholarship award letter officially so that may take a couple thousand off of tuition (fingers crossed).
Number 7 was what I was mostly looking for help on. How in the heck do I estimate that? Is “fun” going to Starbucks once a month? Is “fun” a trip to Hawaii? Is “fun” retail therapy after I bomb a test? How do I know what I will have time for/what’s feasible/reasonable/dumb/crazy/necessary. How do you budget for being flexible and spontaneous and staying sane if needed but also not being ridiculous and frivolous?
Advice? What not to do? Did I leave anything out?
Even if you aren’t a med student reading this, how would you gauge how much to take out for my other, less necessary costs?
I woke up this morning and felt like writing, so I’m going to get this doozy out of the way. I’ve been meaning to do it for a while- since I wrote this post about my first interview back at the beginning of April.
I’m struggling a little bit with how to write this, because I want to be honest. For me, this wasn’t as positive of an interview. I feel like I said the right things, and I didn’t colossally screw up. It was just not a great experience for me. That’s an opinion. It’s how I personally feel about what happened. It is a really great school. It just isn’t the school.
My second and final interview was at OU.
Source
Again, I went to bed early the night before. Also like the first time I woke up ready to get it over with.
I distinctly remember getting to the medical park- which includes seven post graduate healthcare profession schools, a few hospitals, many research institutes, student unions, etc- and not having a clue where to go. I wandered aimlessly, thinking showing up 15 minutes before required was plenty of time.
Two minutes later, when I found where I was supposed to be, I also found I was the underachiever of the bunch. I was one of the last ones to get my name tag and my packet.
The panic that was assuaged when I got to my first interview and discovered I was one and the same with my fellow interviewees, was exacerbated when I got to this interview and discovered I was not one of these people.
First of all, there were too many of us to count. Secondly, many of them it seemed were non-traditional students (which can be intimidating on interview day, to a kid that has never had a meaningful job in here life). They had briefcases and stilettos. I had a water bottle and flats.
After letting us mingle in the lobby, they sent us into one of the main lecture halls and told us about the school, the campus, and the selection process. We were divided into groups. Some people went to their interview first, some went on a tour, some went to see the skills lab, and some talked about the online lecture system with the med students. I was in the group that got a tour first and then my interview.
My group’s tour guides were wonderful. They were easy to get along with and answered a ton of questions. That was soothing to me; that when everyone wasn’t in interview clothes and all high-strung and nervous, I felt like I could fit in with the type of students OU has. The children’s hospital is gorgeous and inspiring and it made me want to be a doctor right away. The entire medical campus has like 548960958 places for faculty and patients to eat, which was cool. (I will be eating soft pretzels everyday from Quiktrip a mile down the road from where I am going).
At my interview, I waited outside for the last group to finish for what seemed like forever. Finally the door opened and I was introduced to a female family doc, a fourth year male med student, and an ancient male plastic surgeon. They asked me about myself. I struggled to mention a few adjective that described me and then I decided that saying I was “diligent” meant nothing to them so I went on to say what it is I like to do. When I mentioned that I have five nieces and grabbed my necklace with their initials, the family doc wanted to see the necklace, and she put her hand on my shoulder. Boom, I liked her. We were connected. From then on, she was on my side. The med student and I had a mutual friend. Bam, connection. These two people asked me questions that were easy to answer, fed me prompts so I knew which direction they were looking for, and understood the answers I was going for.
The plastic surgeon, not so much. I had no common ground with him. He asked me odd questions where I wasn’t sure what he was getting at. We started discussing Shawnee. He mentioned the casino there and asked me if I had ever been. I said “No, I have not”. He asked, “Are you against gambling? Do you gamble?” To me, those are two different questions and both are irrelevant to obtaining a medical education.
I said, “No I do not gamble, not necessarily for any other reason than that I don’t think it sounds fun. Am I against gambling? No, not particularly, though it does cause some difficulties for those that do gamble so its not always wise.” Blah blah blah. I knew I was rambling. I had no direction because I wasn’t sure where to go or what he was wanting.
The other bothersome question he asked me was about medicine at least. He asked if I see a patient- and am completely unable to help them, I just send them home, would I charge them for their visit. I said, “What do you mean, unable to help them?” He said, “You provided no services and no care because you did not know what was wrong.” I said, “I’m not sure that I would see that as an acceptable visit. I would do something else to figure out what was wrong, refer them to someone, do some labs; but, if I really did not do anything for them, no I would not charge them.”
He wrote something down on his paper and I wanted to scream. WHAT WAS HE AFTER? The family doc offered some verbal buffer because she could tell I was confused. I wanted to know what was wrong with the hypothetical patient I couldn’t help and why I was so incompetent to not help them. The plastic surgeon asked the medical student what he would say. The med student said he would charge for it. The plastic surgeon said “You see, when medical students come in their first and second years, over half usually say that they wouldn’t charge them. But third and fourth year students and practicing physicians learn that a doctor’s time is worth a great deal more than you’d think even if a service isn’t provided. At my practice- just making someone an appointment when they show up and sit it my waiting room, it costs me $257 in overhead. So when a woman comes in and asks me if I mole is cancerous and I look at it and say no and send her on her way, I charge her for it.”
Ahhhh. I see now. Relief. He didn’t care what I said. I thought to myself.
I was a part of his own personal survey project of testing-the-naive-little-pre-doctor-on-her-lack-of-jadedness-and-isn’t-she-so-cute-with-her-ignorance.
I called him on it. I told him that the mole scenario was a different story than the situation he gave me. If the woman made an appointment to see if her mole was harmful, she was paying for a professional opinion, even if it just meant she was getting peace of mind. In that case, yes, I would charge her. I also stuck to my guns and said that in the first situation he gave me, where I was literally unable to do anything for a patient, I do not see it as correct to charge her if I just send her home.
OU has a partial blind interview. Halfway through, after they “get to know you” (in fifteen minutes), you step out and they look at your numbers- MCAT and GPA.
I stepped out and my medical student tour guide talked to me about how it was going, assured me that I had a right to be here and to be proud of my grades and MCAT- after all, I was here. She said that they have already determined my grades to be good enough to go here, that they just want to hear my side. With a little bit of comfort, I went back in.
MCAT first. Plastic surgeon said, “If you had taken your MCAT again do you think you could have done better?” “Yes.”
“It says Physics is your lowest subscore and you also have a poorer grade in physics on your transcript.”
“Yeah, Physics is definitely not my strong suit. But, I did improve my Physics subscore and brought up my physics grade by a letter grade in between physics 1 and physics 2. I just had to buckle down and learn how to study.”
“You won’t be able to go into orthopedics or plastic surgery without an understanding of physics. Those specialties require an understanding of structures and straight lines and connections.”
Me, not too heartbroken or swayed by one man’s opinion of the medical importance of physics, “Ok, I’ll keep that in mind.”
Med student pipes up. “Do you feel like you did your best?”
“Um, that’s difficult question. At the time I felt like I was giving it my all. Looking back though, I can always see ways in which I could have done things differently to improve.”
Plastic surgeon “Your GPA is a little low, would you be worried coming in to OU that you would fall behind?”
“Not at all. My ‘low’ GPA is due to a couple of classes that are required for medical school to show you can do the work. If you look at the semester where I took 4 biologically relevant LAB science classes all at once and got straight A’s, you will see that Anatomy, M&C, Physiology, Genetics, etc do not deter me. PILE THEM ON, I LOVE THOSE COURSES.”
Yes, I said “pile them on”. And my biggest fans smiled. Plastic surgeon did not. Plastic surgeon thinks Physics is of paramount importance because he got an A in it in 1842 when he took it and there was only one chapter.
Other questions:
What has been your most meaningful volunteer experience and why?
In your shadowing, have you ever seen a patient that stuck with you emotionally, why?
Where else did you apply?
After my interview, we had lunch and did the rest of the touring/rotations. They had baked cod, salad, and mashed sweet potatoes, which I though was weird. All I ate were rolls and cookies.
I was emotionally drained by the end of the day. And starving. I felt proud that I had answered the “grades” questions with conviction and told plastic surgeon off, sort of.
But, I didn’t like that I had a naysayer. Nobody likes a naysayer. I didn’t like the huge impersonal environment, where I would get lost. I was upset. At the time I was still on the wait list at OSU and so much was unknown. I was afraid that if I didn’t get in to OSU and did get into OU (unlikely) that I would have to go to OU and wouldn’t like it.
Thankfully, it all worked out in the end, as it always does.
I’m trying to think of a clever name for the study room that will become my office during medical school but nothing has hit me yet.
Here it is! The official before pictures. You’ll see it evolve more and more starting when I get back to Tulsa after graduation (10 days 21 hours and 39 minutes from now), but who’s counting?
Right now the room serves as a guest bedroom, game room, craft room, and storage closet.
First order of business will be to get rid of the junk (including the pac man machine) and condense the closet.
Next, we will restore, build, or buy furniture and put my desk in and make it functional as an office.
It will still serve as a guest bedroom when my girls come to visit! So the bed stays.
Lastly will be setting the mood and prettying it up to be an inspiring, productive space for use throughout medical school!
I have big plans for this room.
I’m going with a soft color palate of teal and beige with pops of salmon. I’m looking for a lot of natural textiles like raw wood, burlap, sea glass and plant-y things. The bedspread, I want neutral and vintage. Lamps, lights, and chair can be sort of industrial. The art I want to be animal, plant or anatomy/medical inspired. I also want to incorporate a comfortable reading area with twinkle lights somehow.
I can’t wait to see how it turns out and update you guys on the process.
*A lot of these images (especially paint colors) I got from Young House Love. The sawhorse desk is something I made. I found the vintage medical posters on pinterest. Other places I looked grabbed pictures from include Ikea, Target, West Elm, and Etsy. If you need a specific source let me know! I’m not trying to copy someone else without crediting them.