Growing Pains
Ever since I wrote the MCAT my life has been tragically devoid of purpose. Yes, my vacation time in Ottawa was fun. Yes, I'm glad that I don't have to solitarily spend silent hours in the library. However, I feel unnecessarily and guiltily lazy. I feel I am at one of those metaphorical crossroads. I have to sort out my life, make a plan, and follow through with it. I think about it all a lot, I just don't do anything about it.
For example, I have yet to decide if I will apply to med schools this year for entrance in September 2008. That was the initial plan. Then, I thought about it some more, and doubted whether my current applicant profile would offer me a standing chance. I have a fairly amateur resumé. I have no research experience. I have very little formidable volunteer experience. I've got a good GPA, and what I think might be a strong MCAT score, but they clearly won't suffice. I don't think I'd even be able to wrangle up two appropriate references. This led me to the conclusion that I should wait until next year to apply and in the meantime accumulate some work experience, volunteer experience, and hopefully attain some good references along the way. However, I then talked to a fellow med school aspirant who advised me to apply anyway, just to experience it, and who knows, maybe I'll get an interview somewhere.
I am also on the hunt for a job. Living in Alberta, you'd think that would be like shooting fish in a barrel, pardon the cliché. But I don't want just any ol' job. I want a job that'll count. Something relevant to the medical field, something that will call upon the knowledge gained from my degree. A tougher find, she be! Ideally this job would be part time as I will be in classes come September. It would also pay moderately well as my funds are currently performing a disappearing act. I do not want to have to resort to the food service industry or retail.
I have been formulating in my mind what would ideally happen in the next year or so. Say I apply for med school this year. I am in classes until January. During these classes, I would work part time, start saving up, get some volunteering in. Come January, I can continue working, most likely full time as I currently do not foresee myself being enrolled in classes. Best case scenario, I get an interview at a med school, possibly more. That will occur some time in February, March, or early April. Say that by May I have accumulated enough funds to go on some valuable, overseas volunteer mission (I've been looking at this two-month hospital stint in Ghana). I return with the awesome news that I have miraculously been accepted to a med school!!! September will roll around and I will have a fresh, self-planned, (4 + x) amount of academic years ahead of me.
It seems possible.... maybe. I can just sense it won't happen. There is currently some debate within my household whether, or more appropriately, when Ma and Pa are packing up and moving to the BC interior, of course taking with them my twelve year old sister. I am thoroughly opposed to moving away from Edmonton. I know it's not the greatest city, but I like it. It's the city in which I was born, the city in which I have lived the longest without a move. My life is here. My future is here, I know it. What would happen if they decided to move? Would I stay? How? Where? Would my nineteen year old sister stay as well?
That just opens up a whole lot of terrible, TERRIBLE questions and fears and problems and whatnot. I am as dependent as they come; I doubt that I would be able to support myself. I don't drive. I currently don't have an income. I still need my mom to kill spiders for me (though I assure you I have a genuine phobia). On the other hand, is that what I need? A swift and drastic rearrangement of my life? I don't know.
What I do know is that I need to grow up.
For example, I have yet to decide if I will apply to med schools this year for entrance in September 2008. That was the initial plan. Then, I thought about it some more, and doubted whether my current applicant profile would offer me a standing chance. I have a fairly amateur resumé. I have no research experience. I have very little formidable volunteer experience. I've got a good GPA, and what I think might be a strong MCAT score, but they clearly won't suffice. I don't think I'd even be able to wrangle up two appropriate references. This led me to the conclusion that I should wait until next year to apply and in the meantime accumulate some work experience, volunteer experience, and hopefully attain some good references along the way. However, I then talked to a fellow med school aspirant who advised me to apply anyway, just to experience it, and who knows, maybe I'll get an interview somewhere.
I am also on the hunt for a job. Living in Alberta, you'd think that would be like shooting fish in a barrel, pardon the cliché. But I don't want just any ol' job. I want a job that'll count. Something relevant to the medical field, something that will call upon the knowledge gained from my degree. A tougher find, she be! Ideally this job would be part time as I will be in classes come September. It would also pay moderately well as my funds are currently performing a disappearing act. I do not want to have to resort to the food service industry or retail.
I have been formulating in my mind what would ideally happen in the next year or so. Say I apply for med school this year. I am in classes until January. During these classes, I would work part time, start saving up, get some volunteering in. Come January, I can continue working, most likely full time as I currently do not foresee myself being enrolled in classes. Best case scenario, I get an interview at a med school, possibly more. That will occur some time in February, March, or early April. Say that by May I have accumulated enough funds to go on some valuable, overseas volunteer mission (I've been looking at this two-month hospital stint in Ghana). I return with the awesome news that I have miraculously been accepted to a med school!!! September will roll around and I will have a fresh, self-planned, (4 + x) amount of academic years ahead of me.
It seems possible.... maybe. I can just sense it won't happen. There is currently some debate within my household whether, or more appropriately, when Ma and Pa are packing up and moving to the BC interior, of course taking with them my twelve year old sister. I am thoroughly opposed to moving away from Edmonton. I know it's not the greatest city, but I like it. It's the city in which I was born, the city in which I have lived the longest without a move. My life is here. My future is here, I know it. What would happen if they decided to move? Would I stay? How? Where? Would my nineteen year old sister stay as well?
That just opens up a whole lot of terrible, TERRIBLE questions and fears and problems and whatnot. I am as dependent as they come; I doubt that I would be able to support myself. I don't drive. I currently don't have an income. I still need my mom to kill spiders for me (though I assure you I have a genuine phobia). On the other hand, is that what I need? A swift and drastic rearrangement of my life? I don't know.
What I do know is that I need to grow up.
