Get Over It

Last weekend was Parent's Weekend here at St. George's. Many first-termers, including myself, put our studies on the back-burner for a few days while we entertained family and friends on island cruises and nutmeg factory tours. At the end of it all was the White Coat Ceremony, an event to celebrate the beginning of our medical education.

The Master of Ceremonies was Dr. Reginald Abraham, a St. George's graduate from the class of 1990, and he left a lasting impression on me. Up until last weekend, one of the most common questions to ask a first-termer was where they applied to medical school in the States. During his opening remarks, Dr. Abraham addressed this by saying,

"You're here now. Get over it."

Wow. Tough love hurts, but it works, too. I stopped asking that question and never answered it when I was asked again.

Now that the honeymoon's over, the parent's are gone, and SGU has stopped giving away free food, it's time to catch up. The Bioethics Final is only a few weeks away and everyone is trying to figure out the best way to handle the workload. Whether it's by using the BRS (Board Review Series) or the Mac Daddy (SECRET file passed down from upper-termers containing old tests) everyone has their own unique way of studying and it can be easy to fall into the trap of freaking out because you aren't doing what everyone else is doing.

Take anatomy lab, for example. This week was our first session and a few students decided to take a peek at the cadavers BEFORE lab had even started. After the rumors started to spread about this rogue group, more students went nuts, causing masses of first-termers to pack the anatomy lab to PRE-study before the lab sessions had started.

Get over it. Dr. Abraham's words were all I could think of when a few of my friends asked if I wanted to tag-along on their late-night, freak-out journey to the anatomy lab. I declined, opting instead to catch up with my college roommate via Skype. In the end, I was more than prepared for anatomy lab and held my own during the professor's examination.

It's only been a few weeks and many of us are already losing confidence. It might be the workload or the new location, but either way, we're making it harder for ourselves to succeed by obsessing over the Mac Daddy or spreading a rumor about an online quiz.

The first two years of Medical School seem to break you free from your interest in caring for people. An odd way to build the foundation for one's medical education, right?

Taped to the wall near my desk is a card given to me from a friend. His name is David and he is a resident at an assisted-living center where I used to work. I brought the card with me to Grenada as a reminder of why I am here and why I am putting myself through years of hard work and huge amounts of debt. Whenever I feel troubled or that I can't handle the pressure, I read his inscription as a way to motivate myself to keep going.

I move on. I get over it. I re-open "Gray's Anatomy."