DOCTOR COMIC - PART 4

Source: Chainsawsuit

When you're done with undergraduate education, what do you usually do? I know this girl who went straight to medical school after an exotic vacation along the coast of Vietnam (the flight took 27 hours, one way.) Other people got married and flooded Facebook with artsy wedding photos (I wasn't invited.) Another guy fought with his dad then stabbed him multiple times (he looked startled in his online mugshot.) Oh so many juicy details that I could babble about all day, so I don't have to talk about myself.

You probably remember my rants on the medical school application a while back. Now when I think about it, that time was actually quite fuzzy and fluffy like a fat country baby eating peaches off the hard wood floor. Maybe I should have complained a little bit less? But ranting makes me feel so good, so that's what I'm gonna do.

On the roughest day, I found myself sitting in a shitty car on New Year's eve, shivering with no heat, and shaking with fear. My heart pounded like an African tribal drum after I skidded off the icy road into a cementary; blame it on the race, Asian people can't drive. Among tombstones poking through piles of powdery snow, some dead guy George's final resting place stopped the car's motion and grounded it there. Good grief.

I was exhausted ringing up people's holiday groceries with a half-hearted smile that masked over how miserable I really felt at the time. Why was it? First, the doctor whose-named-shall-not-be-called was "unable to honor the request" to provide me a recommendation letter to complete my application (his patients gave him horrible ratings anyway.) Second, I had a disastrous medical school group interview, the school itself also depressed me (more snow than Chicago, and I don't know how to drive in the snow!) Third, I disliked that I was over-qualified and under-compensated for the cashier job (for goodness's sake, I graduated magna cum laude, but the lady who bought two dozens of creme filled donuts gave a dime about that.) How on earth anyone could deal with it?

When someone hits the bottom, the only way to go is up (unless he digs deeper in the dirt, I have to add this.) But anyway, I managed to set up a shadowing experience with another mindful and caring physician who supposedly wrote me a stellar letter. I got interviews at other places, and I love these places much more than I hated that place with the group interview. I learned that the attitude with which you do your job defines who you are sometimes much more significantly than the job itself. I actually managed to talk about the cashier job as a character enhancing opportunity during the interviews. All is well.

So I really tried not to, but I rolled my eyes anyway when I heard somebody, who was seemingly in a better situation than I was, complained about his life. He said he loathed his lab job at this big deal school in Philly and it wasn't worth it for him to pursue a medical career. At least he had a job vaguely relevant to the degree he had in biological sciences. Even though I got stuck in a shitty car with a pool of ice on the back seat from the big leak on the roof, I persisted and got to where I want to. And that's right y'all, I'll begin my medical education next summer.

Woohoo!