M1 - pt. 1, pt. 1

So after reading my last ten thousand posts, where I was shit-talking medicine, I realized its a really boring look. Why would you care if I hate it if you don't know WHY I hated it? Well... I'll try to break that down... maybe someone will find it interesting? If anything, it might help me process shit...

OK... so M1 (slang for year one of medical school)...

I showed up the first day wearing navy trousers, some vintage belt I got for a $1 at a thrift store, $2.50 Bass loafers (no socks), a threadbare brooks brother's pin strip shirt, and a cloth plaid tie. After spending about 20 hours in the mirror, I decided I was ready to meet the 40 students that I would spend the next for 4 years, and possibly the rest of my life, with!

I knew they would be different from my friends. I just didn't realize how fucking annoying they would be. However, the students were bearable... some of them even fun fun. The professors, however? Omg. If medicine wasn't medicine... they'd be in every new media outlet known to man, likely tabloid fodder for their crazy ass opinions or something? But in medicine secrets are kept. If you tell anyone about these things, you get punished via peripheral methods - TRUST.

Anyways, first day I tried to play along. I noticed the concerned stares the second I stepped off the bus. Not from my classmates but from the staff. You see, we were in this weird class that got 100% private scholarship for the full four years. We have to please these people - our donors. In Orlando this means you need to be... idk not me? (incidentally, when giving a thank you speech to my donors I was tackled off stage when I was asked how my first year was and I responded, "well, its hard!" Then the microphone was snatch from my hand and the guy in charge of the event told the half-dead crowd that I was kidding and that "I was actually a great student." Haha! I was a fucking stellar student... but achieving that was literally HARD! I HATE the idea that if you struggle and work hard to get good grades then something is wrong with you??? I think the opposite of that is called cheating... right?

OK, I'm reverting back to old topics. What else happened first year that ruined my life. OH!

Ok, so its like mid-way through first year and I find out that my mother lost her job as a nurse after having a radical hysterectomy due to cervical cancer. The procedure was done 'open' rather than laparoscopically. This meant her recovery was LONG and she couldn't return to work after the allotted time of leave (nurses push obese ppl around the hospital - which requires ab muscles and hers were slowly healing from being sliced in half - so her wonderful employer fired her).

I found out she had lost her house and her car had been repossed. She didn't want to tell me bc she was scared it would stress me out. Immediately I freaked out and went to our dead of students, Dr. Marcia Verduin. My goal was to ask for referral to support students dealing with these types of things.

I told her the situation: that I found out my mom was recovering from cancer, had nowhere to live, and that she'd be moving into the extra room in my apt indefinitely! I think my goal was to ask for study tips or something. Her response: Absolutely not! Apparently med students who live with their parents do worse academically. She told me that I definitely should not allow her to live with me. I replied... My MOTHER is homeless and recovering from cancer... she's moving in! I honestly couldn't have imagined not taking in my own mother and this woman says to leave her on the streets. I should have left the school at that exact moment.

Dr. Verduin warned that my grades and performance would slip. Instead... my grades improved during year 2. I made all A's my second year and got the highest grade in my class on the national bared exam. Dr. V never asked about my mom or how I was feeling. She actually never talked to me directly unless I requested a meeting. However, even if my grades had dropped, I wouldn't care bc I actually care about other ppl - ESPECIALLY MY FAMILY!

Mom and I worked together to get her a new job and a car within a year.

At the end of year 2 (still living with mom) I took step 1... and I killed it. Mom actually helped. Well sort of. She kept quite and drove me to the library while listening to prep notes. She refused to pick me up until the library closed! She was the best! What did Verduin do? IDK but apparently everyone else in my class trusted her (if you want sick STEP scores DO NOT LISTEN TO A PSYCHIATRIST).

The moral of the story is... people who dole out advice on academics and standardized exam performance are generally not the best sources. For example,  my class had crazy high MCAT scores and then basically everyone bombed STEP1. That is everyone except me. None of that matters now. But the key to doing well on standardized exams is to put in the work. Just do that. Read studentdoctorsnetwork.com, review regularly throughout year 2, take every practice exam, and block a month off for 12 hr/day for that month. Sucks but it determines the rest of your life.

Also, NEVER listen to faculty advice saying to ignore a family emergency to "study"... Or... don't take advice from someone who went into psychiatry (i.e. academic degenerates). Be nice to your family, work your ass off, and follow your gut... not some low rent psychiatrist (at least when it comes to studying). TRUST.

-RS

p.s. Plus this selfish, crazy psychiatrist had terrible hair and discolored teeth... so like... just beware of anyone with those characteristics and trust no one after serious vetting. And if you are one of those aforementioned un-trustable people... veneers, personal shoppers, dermatologists, and hair stylists - most ppl believe whatever pretty ppl say (even if its wrong). Also, EVERYONE, be nice, be informed, try hard, drop egos, and realize the better ppl around you are doing the better you look. DUH!