Six weeks left...

One piece of advice I have heard over and over is,

“Take it easy the summer before you start medical school.”

So I have. I’ve been spending time with friends, doing things that I love, and doing a bit of travelling – went to the Calgary Stampede and off to Vegas for a trip with the father next.

I was walking on cloud nine once I heard that I got in, and I’m still so excited to start. My first class is only six weeks away.

I was waiting eagerly for my registration package to arrive, and it did, on Wednesday; a 144-page booklet full of orientation week schedules, class schedules, forms to fill out, social events to sign up for (pub crawl and camping trip!!), and bios and photos of the entire 2nd-year class. We’ll be getting a similar facebook with bios for our class, once everyone submits their bio. Also, we have a 106-page orientation booklet to read, too.

It’s been incredible reading the 450-character summaries of the other students – if that’s any indication, come September I am going to be surrounded by a large number of outstanding individuals. But something else that I picked up from the bios of these students – virtually a snapshot of the lives of a couple hundred people who made the medical school cut – is that medical school admissions committees don’t just accept people who have done the typical ‘pre-med’ thing; volunteering in a hospitals and taking a Biology major. Rather, it’s clear that each of these people have incredible life experiences, they have done something impress (regardless of it is science-related or not), and so many of them have taken lots of time off between undergad and med school to do things they love. As well, everyone has taken a really unique path to get into medicine. One guy in the class studied electrical engineering, then in his masters he focused on the engineering side of medical imaging, which got him interested in becoming a doctor.

So the waiting continues. Not much before the whirlwind hits; I’ve had to set up an appointment for immunizations, and have to start looking into buying equipment (stethoscope, otoscope, opthalmascope) and textbooks and submitting all these forms. Not too exciting yet… but I still can’t wait!