Anticipation

One thing about starting medical school is the anticipation of the experience. You hear a lot about it, with impressions ranging from miserable to unbelievably good. I don't get the impression that people are evenly distributed across the spectrum of impressions. It seems like you hear mostly from people who are miserable and from a few people who are happy. It seems like many students do enjoy Baylor College of Medicine, which is one of the reasons I chose this school. The curriculum seems to allow for taking electives and that are interesting to the student, so that might have something to do with it. Going into this, you are left wondering where you will fall as an individual. I think one advantage I have is that I've learned to enjoy pretty much any experience because I put a lot of effort into not letting circumstances get to me. When it comes to medicine, although I enjoy the subject matter, I also think about the fact that I'm going there to learn as much as I can so that I can be an effective physician. I also want to be an encouragement and help to fellow students and perhaps even be a benefit to a patient or two. I'm expecting a lot of hard work, sleep deprivation, and an opportunity to learn a lot of medical-related information (even if much of it is trivia). Since I enjoy school and learning, I'm expecting to enjoy the experience as much as one can enjoy something while working very hard at it.

Another dimension for me is going into this experience with a family. I need to consider the lives of my wife and children, not just my own needs. My family already understands that my availability to them will be limited. Whether this is actually a practical approach remains to be seen, of course. For example, I wonder if my lack of time with my children due to medical school requirements will have a negative impact on their upbringing and later lives. I'm not sure I have figured that part out entirely. I do know that I have a wife who is very supportive on this and does a lot to make sure the children have wonderful learning and growing experiences throughout the week. Not only does a family require time, but it also requires money to cover the necessities. I have some money saved from my previous career and my wife works. Overall, it's still challenging to meet all the needs, but I think I have a workable plan.

Finally, right now I'm trying to get everything done that I want to complete as I expect that medical school will consume my time as I adjust to my new environment.

Med school only a few weeks away ....

Now with medical school only a few weeks away it's neat to look back and forward. It took a fair amount of work to get into medical school, but this is nothing compared to what is about to happen. The MS1s before me are recovering from their first year and seem very happy to be done. Going into this I thought I would be interested in doing research while I go to medical school. Now I'm not so sure. My area of research (systems biology) seems to have a minimal presence at the school I'm attending. Most of the work is elsewhere, such as Vanderbilt. In speaking with some of the PI's I'm not sure that there is a research project that makes sense that I will actually have much time to devote to. That's a big part of the problem. Med school takes up so much time and anything you do, like research, might prolong the process. I'll keep my eyes open to opportunities. In the meantime, I'll work on finishing some things up before med school ... such as a couple of Spanish courses I am taking and some post-doc research that I started.