Boy does it feel good to see the “1/2” in front of the M.D. in my name.
I guess I've technically been a 1/2 M.D. ever since I took my Step exam, considering the fact that it was the monumental milestone that effectively ended my second year of medical school. All I've really been doing ever since then is going on vacations and attending third-year orientation sessions. So pretty much, I've been straight chillin'. But I found it fitting to officially call myself a 1/2 M.D. only after officially becoming a third-year med student, which to me meant completing all my orientation sessions. So here I am, a third-year medical student who has conquered both Step 1 and the required basic science coursework necessary to continue on to the clinical wards in order to begin my clinical rotations this week. Although I may be halfway done with my formal medical education (*GAAASSSPPP*), I sure don't feel anywhere near ready to become a practicing physician. But I'm sure that all the looming long days in the hospital will work to effectively change that. Lol. Not really laughing though.
This past week was been an excellent one, to say the least! I started off my week at a day-long session on how to effectively use the Electronic Medical Record, which we had lowkey already went over the prior week. However, I did learn how to use the system a lot better this time around. It was still painfully boring though. The next day, I attended a Pharmacology lecture and was inundated with drugs and drug classes that we were expected to be familiar with once we got on the wards. Again, my eyes glazed over during this session. This ended up being the last session of third-year orientation, meaning that I was free to do whatever I wanted the rest of the week! Take a guess as to what I ended up doing? Yuuuuup, I was off to Miami for the last time in a long time in order to watch my girlfriend as well as my other close friends walk the stage for graduation! I flew out late Tuesday night and am just now returning to North Carolina after about five days of non-stop festivities. It was such a great time! As always, it was an absolute pleasure to link up with fraternity brothers, old friends, and my girlfriend + her family. I also haven't had so much good, free food in such a long time! Shoutout to my girl's parents for taking care of me the whole time I was in Miami! In between going to dinners, helping her pack her room up, going to graduation ceremonies, catching up with old friends, and trying to keep up with my emails, I was kept pretty busy the whole time and lost some precious sleep as a result lol. But it was an awesome and unforgettable time and I'm so thankful that I was able to attend UM's graduation this year!
With the completion of this trip unfortunately (or fortunately, depends on how you wanna look at it) comes the end of my post-Step vacation. It was an amazing vacation overall and am grateful that I was able to enjoy the whole experience. Now it's finally time to apply the knowledge that I've accumulated over these past couple of years to real-life patients. Can't believe that this time has finally come….I'm sure that it's about to be a very interesting ride!
I hope that you have an outstanding week! Happy Mothers' Day to all of you mothers out there, you are very much appreciated! And a huge congrats to everyone graduating from their respective institutions this month! You're making all of your loved ones extremely proud!
“All the concepts about stepping out of your comfort zone mean nothing until you decide that your essential purpose, vision and goals are more important than your self-imposed limitations.” – Robert White
– Black Man, M.D.