Twas the night before med school

I'm sitting here in a condo that is about 84.3% put together and am thinking about tomorrow. I am getting together what they want... immunization records, health insurance, money, etc etc etc.

But I moved on from the superficial things for tomorrow and started to try and grasp what is really happening tomorrow. Medical School, something that I have been striving for, going after, pursuing, whatever for 3 years, begins tomorrow. It is amazing to realize that my dream is finally becoming realized, and that tomorrow I will embark on a journey that will turn me into a doctor. I know that it will desensitize me to a lot of things, but at the same time, I know it is something that I really wanted.

I wanted to say a general thank you to all of you out there for the continued reading of this small section I like to call home on the internet. It's very cool knowing you all are out there reading up on me, seeing how I am doing and all of that. Thanks for all of the support over the past year (or many years if I actually know you). Just know that I am very appreciative of it all.

Now it begins.

Tomorrow, I will come home, and I will officially be a medical student. My intention is to keep this updated, and allow all of you to see what it means go through medical school. You went on the ride of applying, which was merely the warm up. Now we are in it for real. I hope you all will my growth as a person, as I learn more information then I ever thought possible. I don't plan on posting actual grades, just more of a "I did horrible... I did ok... I did amazing" kind of scale. That should give you an idea.

So, since I have orientation tomorrow, here is a little orientation to medical school for all of you. The first 2 years are in the classroom. At GW, it basically works that in the first year, you learn everything there is to know about the normal human body. Then, in the 2nd year, you learn what can go wrong. GW has a course called POM (Practice of Medicine) that allows us to follow a preceptor during our first 2 years, so that we can be reminded what we are really learning all of this information for, and so that we can begin to see what it means to actually be a doctor.

After the 2nd year, you take Step 1 of the USMLE's (United States Medical Licensing Examination). It tests all of your knowledge from 1st and 2nd year. This is one of the biggest tests every medical student takes. Obviously there will be much more about that in the coming years.

After that, you enter 3rd year and this is when you begin rotations through all of the different clerkships. These include Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Psychology, Ob/Gyn (my favorite... riiiiiiight) and most of the different specialties offered. This also continues onto 4th year, where you have many more electives (choose what you want to do). In the 4th year, though possibly also in the 3rd as I learned this afternoon, you take Step 2 of the USMLE's. This obviously tests you on all of the information you've learned in rotations. Again, more to come.

You also apply to residency in your 4th year. After going on interviews, there is a day in March, Match Day, where every medical student, at the same time, finds out where they are doing their residency. And again, you guessed it, more to come later.

So that is medical school in a nutshell. There are details I left out, or may not be exact on, but that is the general idea, and I am sure all of the minute details will be worked out over the next 4 years.

So now, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. (Hey, at least YOU can thoroughly enjoy it, I need to actually do the suffering part).

Let's roll.

-wait