The Little Penguin that Could

Hello, everyone!  I so much appreciate all the great comments.  You know who you are.


I really, really do not have time to write much.  I'll try to put something on here after my block exams.

Block exams mean four exams in five days.  This happens about every six weeks throughout the first semester of medical school here.  It means pretty much non-stop studying for about a week-and-a-half solid.

But what I really wanted to put on the record here is that I don't mind it.  Medical students told me that they had plenty of time to have lives, that they often took weekends off, and all sorts of associated nonsense.  I don't want to say that to the kids who are interviewing now.  I want to level with them.

"Listen, guys.  Medical school is hard.  You will learn more facts than you thought possible in less time than you thought possible.  It will take at least 60 or 65 hours per week of your time in classes, labs, and studying. You really can't do it in much less time than that; if you do, you're doing it wrong.  No way around it.
"And putting in that much work would be really painful and awful... if this were not exactly what we want with our lives.  It's so exciting to learn it all.  So yes, medical school is as hard as everyone says.   But it's also as great as everyone says."

I find myself gladly making sacrifices I would have begrudged in college.  Just like waiting for a stranger is annoying but waiting for the person you love is oddly a pleasure, sacrificing for medical school is gladly done.

Have a good week!