In A Nutshell

After a fun and very eventful month adjusting to life in Nashville and Vandy, things have started to settle down and I'm finally beginning to experience what the daily routine of a medical student is like. In a nutshell: wake up, go to class, eat lunch, study, eat dinner, study some more, sleep, repeat. It's not as bad as it sounds, really. Sure, it's like drinking from a firehose--one of my lectures on the cell cycle today covered two months worth of material I learned in an upper division cancer biology class in one hour (80 slides)--but the fact that everyone's all in this together offers a kind of solidarity that makes even the most tedious 4-hr lecture-marathons at 8am tolerable, and even fun (in a twisted, masochistic way). It seems that the key to survival is twofold--keep up with the material (which is arguably the most difficult adjustment I've had to make coming to med school, but I've done a good job so far), and develop a good support network. A few of my classmates and I have been studying right after class everyday--we are such gunners, but who isn't anyway?--and it definitely boosted our motivation and made the process more fun and engaging. Although we are not always as productive as we'd like to be--like when our conversation on protein folding and stability somehow turned into gossip about our other classmates--I think whatever tradeoff in productivity is compensated by reduction of our stress level. We've also gotten to know each other much better since we hang out together all the time.

Speaking of my classmates, we have a wonderfully diverse class--diverse not just in terms of race/ethnicity or nationality or cultural background, but more importantly in terms of life experience--people with graduate degrees, people who have taken time off and gained significant experiences and wisdom, people who have lived in or traveled all over the world. Everyone is so smart and hardworking too. I feel incredibly honored to be starting my medical training with my seriously amazing classmates, and I think I can learn a lot from each of them. And although you just can't possibly like everyone, there are definitely people that I can see myself becoming really good friends with. One of the biggest lessons I've learned here is that you're not as unique as you think--when I was applying, I thought my life story (living around the world) was what will make me stand out, but in fact many of my classmates have also lived around the world, and in more countries than I have lived in. Sometimes I feel the "imposter complex" as our dean calls it--it's when you feel like they somehow let you in by mistake because everyone else is so much more awesome than you are. But I guess that just makes you try harder, so as long as it doesn't turn you into a gunner, it's not neccessarily a bad thing =P Our class in general is very close, and we've had a lot of fun together so far--there's always something going on each weekend and even on weeknights, so there is definitely time for you to take a break from the routine of class/study/eat/sleep.

 

I guess the secret to doing well is all in the balance, and in that respect, I definitely have a lot to learn. This past weekend I was out on Friday night and all of Saturday, thinking that I'd leave Sunday for catching up. Little did I know that I needed a lot more time than that to actually do my writing exercises, finish my readings and write an essay, and I didn't even attend all of the events I was planning to go to on Friday and Saturday. I am just amazed how other people are able to do it all--they are either incredibly smart, incredibly efficient, or maybe they're incredibly lazy like me and put off everything until the last minute and only give off the illusion that they're on top of things. In any case, I doubt anyone will actually fail out or drop out unless it is their choice (like they suddenly decide that medicine isn't for them). Vandy is very very supportive of us and they make it a big deal to promote our "wellness." It is just so different from undergrad, especially coming from a big public school for college. Everything is spoon-fed to you here, from all the free lunches, to the nice binders they put all your lecture notes in, to a multilayered advisory system (both faculty and peer mentors). No wonder people seem so happy here. I'm absolutely having a great time, even while being so busy all the time. In a nutshell: "work hard, play hard." That is the motto, and that's a pretty accurate description of my med school experience thus far--but I guess what they don't tell you is that the tradeoff is sleep. So far I'm surviving and in fact quite functional with about 6 hours a day, but I guess we shall see what happens when anatomy starts!