Session 04

Our caller today is sharing with us her triumph after getting into medical school.

She actually dropped two posts. She called back after realizing she wasn’t coherent with her first message. But we dearly loved it so we’re playing both.

Share your highs and lows with us! Please call in and share your experience. Call 1-833-MYDIARY. Press 1 if you want to leave an entry and 5 if you want to leave your feedback on a previous episode (make sure to tell us which episode you’re calling about).

Meanwhile, if you’re in need of other premed resources, please check out all podcasts on MedEd Media Network to help you along this premed journey!

[01:40] Poster of the Week:

I am going to medical school. I’m a nontraditional student who has been working at this for a couple of years. I guess I’m not that nontraditional, but I realized I wanted to be a physician super late. And I had to empty my savings account so that I could go to medical school.

I’d have to take on four jobs. I’ve had to sacrifice so much. I was engaged and had my fiance break up with me during the middle of Biochemistry while studying for the MCAT. And I still did it. I still kicked butt. I still got everything I needed to. I interviewed a couple of weeks ago and I just received an acceptance call today. Honestly, I’m too happy… but I received my acceptance call today while I was at the dry cleaners and started crying hysterically because I’ve just been working on this for so long. And it’s just been such a hard time.

I just wanted to tell people, especially nontraditional students that you can do it and everything is worth this feeling. Everything is worth knowing that what you’ve been working for years has paid off and you’re going to be a physician one day.

[03:33] Congratulations!

Congratulations! You don’t have to be coherent. Obviously, you’re so excited and overcome with joy. You’ve worked so hard to get to where you are and you’ve gotten acceptance to medical school. So enjoy that feeling!

[04:42] Making It Through Hard Times

It’s so great how encouraging she is telling all of you that you can do it, nontrads especially. It’s amazing, too, when she listed all the different things she’s had to do to get that acceptance and how hard she’s worked. It just goes to show the importance of keeping focused despite all the setbacks that are thrown your way during this process.

She emptied her savings account, she talked about having four different jobs, and her fiance broke up with her during Biochemistry while studying for the MCAT. It’s just really miserable.

[06:00] An Unforgettable Feeling of Elation

You will never forget that feeling. You will always have that memory of where you were being at the dry cleaners and getting that call about getting accepted to med school and crying hysterically.

This is also something you might tell your kids. And others may find the same experience when you work so hard to get that acceptance, and when you do, that moment is just pure elation.

Based on personal experience, I was studying at my parent’s house and had been living there for the year. I was sitting upstairs to study and had no idea I might get acceptance through email. I thought it was a phone call or something in the snail mail. So the acceptance just popped into my email and I just started screaming. I was so happy that I started crying. The rest of my family were downstairs and they got so scared they thought something terrible had happened. As I came running down the stairs and told them about the news, we were all crying.

Indeed, getting accepted to medical school gives you a feeling of elation so keep that memory forever.

[09:00] We Want to Hear From You, Highs or Lows!

It’s great to hear happy news. This podcast is really here to help you avoid and deal with burnout. We want you to call in and talk about the lowest lows – the hard, frustrating times that make you angry and upset. This place is intended to be a place for you to unload and just anonymously share that.

On the other hand, this is also a place for you to be able to talk about the excitement and the wonderful moments. Don’t feel like you have to wait to call in to talk about an acceptance. You can call in and talk about the excitement you feel when you have had a wonderful encounter with a patient when you’re shadowing or when you got that first interview. Or maybe you had that great interview and you just want to share about that.

Those moments are beautiful and wonderful. You should feel free to call. We would love to hear from you at any high or low points along this journey. Hopefully, this example will encourage all of you out there to also share whatever it is you want to share here.

[10:50] Give Us a Call

No new feedback for today. But we encourage you all to send some feedback. Call 1-833-MYDIARY and hit 5 if you want to give feedback to previous episodes. And if you’re out there and you would want to share your diary entry, please go ahead and share with us. We are here to support you in the premed journey!

It’s a vulnerable thing to do to call in and talk to an answering machine. So I hope that my comments here are a way of having somebody else talk to you. Again, call in the number and hit 1 to leave a message for premed diaries.

[12:38] The Second Time Our Caller Left a Message

I called earlier and I wasn’t even coherent enough to tell my story. But I just received news that I have been accepted to medical school. And not just any medical school but my dream medical school.

It is a feeling that I’ve never had before. I’m so happy and so excited which is why I’m not really coherent and can’t speak English really well right now. But I’m a nontraditional student. I was on track to be a physical therapist when I decided that wasn’t what I wanted. So I emptied my savings account and took on an extra job so that I could afford to pay for Organic Chemistry. And I’d finished up Organic I and II and Biochemistry and all that fun stuff.

During that, I was engaged and my fiance broke up with me several weeks before I took the MCAT and several weeks before I had a Biochemistry class. That was one of the worst times of my life, if not the worst in my life. I even considered ending my life because I never thought I was going to make it. I never thought that I was going to be a physician. I thought I’d screw up my life totally. I was inside physical therapy school, I had this track going. I thought I was going to fail and that I was now alone without the love of my life.

It’s about one year since all of that was happening. It was all worth it to be here right now, to be in a place where I know I’m going to be a physician. And everything that I did, every hardship I had to face, all that was worth it because I’m going to be a physician. That’s beyond what I put into words how happy I am, how surreal it feels. But all that was worth it. I hope that my story is something that could encourage somebody else out there who’s going through so much harder. This is worth everything!

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