The Not So Pretty

Keep calm everybody!!! I’ve finally decided to keep a written account of my medical school experience!! A little about me, I guess. I attend UT-Houston Medical School as a 1st year. I’m definitely a homebody and by no means a gunner. For all you gunners out there, have at it!!

Other than class attendance and mandatory events, the only extracurricular thing that I do for the school is occasionally host an interviewee in my home. They are just full of unanswered questions, and for lack of a better word, yearn for the knowledge of someone that has already started the journey that they are about to embark on. Even as someone who has succeeded in becoming a medical student (a feat in itself), I definitely still heed the knowledge and pointers that my upperclassmen peers are willing to offer. Before I came to medical school or even applied, I had so many questions so I thought it was time for me to host a forum to talk about my experience in the quest to become a doctor and also offer some advice, should some need it. By all means, most of this blog will include only my personal experience and my “Non-expertise”.

Getting into medical school is hard, but staying in medical school is EVEN HARDER!! SPOILER ALERT!!! IT’S NOT PRETTY!!! Without further ado, here it goes.

I am pretty much the typical small-town girl. I grew up in Hamlin, TX, a city of about 2400 people. I graduated salutatorian of a 33 person class (Fascinating right??) in 2010. By that time, I absolutely had it set in my mind that I was going to school to be a doctor. Traumatic experience, death of a family member, epiphany, blah, blah, blah, the sort of thing you put on a personal statement right?? I attended undergrad at McMurry University in Abilene, TX. I majored in Biomedical Science and minored in BioChemistry (the fun stuff). Let me stop here and say I definitely chose BioMedical Science as a major because it offered all of the prerequisites for Medical school without (for the most part) taking anything else (yay) and I also got a Bachelor’s out of it (double yay). I was definitely not going to be either one of those habitual major changers or an art history major that decided to “pursue her passion of art history” but wanted to be a doctor as well. Back to my life.

I had the privilege of having an adviser that was also a chiropractor, so he offered pretty great advice, besides that little tidbit of information that he tried to force down my throat (You’re not extraordinary, you don’t have a 4.0 GPA, & you didn’t make a 40 on the MCAT. You need to either just go get a master’s or at best, you don’t have a choice but to go to DO school). Yeah, I just disregarded that.

When Match Day came around, I don’t know how many prayers I sent up!! At 8:00 am I finally got to check and see if I got in and lo and behold I matched to UT-Houston!!! I matched!!! I matched!!! I matched!!! (Insert Happy Dance Here) “Wait, what does match even mean??” It took lots of Google searches and a few inquiries for me to even figure out that I was accepted.

Fast-forward to today!! My med school life is anything BUT glamorous, perfect, any of those fun things. Every day is a struggle but I definitely take medical volunteering opportunities any time I can to keep me grounded!!! It also reminds me of why I came to medical school in the first place!! I constantly go through the same cycle: Oh I feel so stupid—>I finally understand what’s going on!!!—->I’m never gonna graduate—->(I volunteer) Now this is why I got into medicine!! and back again!! But I wouldn’t trade it for the world!!

In conclusion, this blog was just made so others can see my transparency and know that you don’t have to be SuperWoman/Man to become a doctor. I hope it is encouragement & motivation for most and maybe just informative for others. Take it from somebody that was riding the STRUGGLE BUS!!! Like I said before, beware. The ride ain’t always pretty!!! More pieces to come!!!

XOXO,

Student Dr. Kendra