Week 1 and White Coat

Week 1 is in the books! And week 1 was spent in the books haha! It's only been 3 days, but it feels like I've learned a whole semester's worth of stuff. It has been described to us like drinking from a firehose! Kinda like this:

We just get blasted with so much information at once, and we have to inhale it all somehow. There is no time for play, just study, study, study. I just have to maintain a good attitude. I have to keep finding ways of how to apply the information that I learn in a clinical setting, and look for how the things I learn can help my future patients. It's hard sometimes, especially when learning about cells or amino acids. But it's all connected.

So my general schedule is like this:

7am wake up

8am Molecular and Cell Biology

9:30am Anatomy Lecture

10:30am Histology

11:30am-12:30pm go home, eat lunch, change into my scrubs

1:00pm Anatomy Lab (cadaver dissection)

3:00pm STUDY

7:00pm eat dinner

8:00pm review material for the following day

10:00pm go to bed

Every 2 weeks or so we will also have a class called Intro to Clinical Medicine where we begin to learn in a hands-on way how to be physicians from taking a medical history to performing physical examinations. So this is my weekday schedule (monday-friday), and on Saturday I plan to spend at least half of the day reviewing the previous week's material, and spending the rest of the day running errands, spending time with my wife and daughter, and enjoying the beautiful island of St. Maarten. On Sunday we go to church from 9am-12pm, and I hope to keep the rest of the day mostly free from studying and treat it like the Day of Rest that God intended it to be. 

This has worked for me so far, and I hope I can keep it up. Medical school requires a lot of hard work, and I really respect all physicians who have gone before me because they did this once too. It's hard, but it's doable. 

On Friday we had our white coat ceremony. It was a formal introduction to the field of medicine. Unfortunately it was 3 hours long and messed up my Friday study schedule haha. It reminded me of a graduation ceremony. There were speakers, and then each of us medical students were called up one by one and given our white coats. 

For many, this was a great celebration. Yes, celebrations are deserved for actually making it to medical school, which is not an easy task. But to me, I felt like this is just the beginning of a long road. Many had parties planned following the ceremony, but I was not interested in the least bit. The white coat ceremony really opened my eyes as to how much hard work and effort this would take. I came here to study medicine not to party, so I went home and studied. I have set some high goals for myself this semester and I want to work hard to achieve them. 

But don't think that I won't have any fun while being here! First off, every night when I go home I have a wife and daughter happy to see me! Playing with my baby girl is a lot of fun. I wouldn't be able to make it through med school without them! I also find time to watch BYU Football! And I know I will find time to explore the paradise of St. Maarten.