Monday, January 26, 2009

Moving Out

After all this time, I finally get to say goodbye to Atlanta. I'm getting my internet/phone/cable cut off tomorrow, and leaving the day after. I don't know how long it will take the movers to get to my new home, or how long it will take to set up my internet there, so this might be my last post here for a few weeks.

It's exciting to get out of here, and carry on with my project. That's been tempered a bit due to some personal stuff that's left me feeling really down the last week or so, but I'm not going to get into that here. Suffice it to say that there's never been a better time for me to have a clean break and a fresh start, if such things are really possible.

Once I manage to get my new apartment set up, I'm thinking of changing the way posts are set up on this blog to something more point by point. I don't know exactly what, but it'd probably involve lists. Especially lists of goals, so we can tune in regularly to see how well (one hopes) I'm progressing. A goal I haven't met yet has been waking up earlier... I'll give that a try again after the move.

Anyways: all my other belongings are boxed up, and it's time for my pc to join them. I'll see you guys in DC.

Friday, January 16, 2009

A Lull

It's been over a month since I made my choice to head out of law school, and enjoyed all the excitement that came with that. It will be over a month before I'm able to start real work towards my goal now (volunteering in a hospital, shadowing a neurologist... what have you), and it will be even longer before I'm able to start taking the courses I need (registration for the summer session isn't even open for another few months). As far keeping busy setting up my move goes, that's all pretty much finished now as well, apart from the actual work of packing things into boxes.

So the excitement seems to have slowly faded, being replaced piece-wise with the reality.

It's scary, because the more I look at 4% acceptance rates, the more I realize what a tiny tiny number that is.

On the upside, my cold has finally completely left me so I've managed to start running again. Exercise will be a good way to kill some spare time - certainly a more healthy way to spend it than to worry about events that are several months off and, for now, outside my control. I'm also going to start getting myself up earlier. There's something that feels unhealthy about sleeping in past noon on a regular basis, and I'd like to put an end to it. I'll start just with 11:00 am. That leaves plenty of time to sleep, but gets through that mental issue of waking up in the pm. I'll push it back earlier later, but this should be a good start.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Christmas - Part 2

Well, it's a bit after tomorrow. Like I said though, I'm busy :(.

I also talked to some medical school admissions people over my break, and they said that while going to a community college to finish my requirements is probably a bad idea - there's really no big difference between any "normal" accredited school. That gives me a little bit of choice in where to go, at least. They also strongly suggested that I find a doctor I can shadow. Apparently this is getting harder to do because of random malpractice issues, but it should still be possible "if I'm willing to be hung up on a lot". Along with that, I want to get a volunteer job at a hospital.

Some hospitals will let me pick the area I want to be in, and it would be great if I could work in neurology. It would be even better if I could find a doctor in neurology to shadow (and volunteering around them is a good way to meet them). Ideally, I want to get lots of neurology work going on because I want to make that the focus of my application and (probably) career. I dropped by the law school and found some people who are willing to give me letters of recommendation for this, which was quite nice of them (mental note: I need to send them the forms for that like... tonight.)

As far my impending move is concerned, things are going well. I haven't picked a company yet, but have been getting all sorts of estimates. I've started canceling my utilities and will probably start boxing up some of my books and clothing this weekend. It'll take the movers ~1 week to get the boxes to my new apartment, but I really want to see if I can start living there right away, even if I have to sleep on the floor with a little blanket or something. I love my parents, but being with them for two weeks over Christmas almost drove me crazy. I'd rather love them from a healthy distance.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Christmas - Part 1

Just got back to Atlanta from my break up in DC. I learned a few things, made a few decisions, got a few presents, and had a pretty fun time until I got sick in the last week. But such things happen.

The big decision I came to is that I'll try to go to medical school for an actual M.D. I think I'd enjoy it more than nursing. Doctors have much more responsibility and make the critical decisions in patient care - they also get to do the diagnosing, which is a big part of medicine's draw for me. There's also extra research opportunities I might be able to get as a professional. This is a bit tricky though, since most medical schools have an admissions rate of about 5% (excluding in-state student admissions at state schools, which can get much higher). A bit over 50% of medical school applicants fail to get into any medical school at all each year. So.... excitement.

Also, I don't have any of my science or math courses from college that I'd need to apply. The good news is that these courses are much more standardized prereqs than the courses I'd need for nursing school. I'll have to take Calculus, Gen. Chem, Organic Chem, Biology, and Physics. A very small amount of medical schools will want Bio Chem as well. The bad news is that I'll /need/ A's to be competitive, and that these courses will take me twice as long to finish as the prerequisites for nursing (they're year-long courses, so I'll have to split this into two years).

I'll start by taking a course in Calculus this Summer. I was never good at math, so if I can take this course in a condensed summer session of 6-7 weeks and still manage an A - the odds are decent that I can handle the rest. If I do terribly, I can go right back to working on nursing. No big loss other than one summer. I think it's a worthwhile risk. (The /real/ risk though is that I do my two years of prereqs, and still don't get accepted... then I'm in a really bad position). But still. If I'm going to be dumb and quit law to shoot for a career I really want, I might as well go all the way.

So I have lots of work to do.

First, I need to more or less relearn precalculus/algebra/trig. I haven't done any math in over six years and while I vaguely remember having gone over these classes, I don't remember how to do any of it. I bought a sort of teach-yourself-precalculus book as a self-gift for Christmas. I've got roughly five months to manage to get all of it down perfectly, or I'll have no chance of passing calculus this summer.

I'm going to start working on this pretty much immediately. I also bought a new pair of running shoes, and hope to start using those pretty much immediately as well (once my cold goes away, at least). A future doctor has to keep in shape, right? I also have to find a moving company, start packing up all my stuff, cancel my utilities in Atlanta, and get my address changed for the companies I'll want to keep forwarding me mail. I'm going to be super busy. More ramblings from my vacation to come tomorrow.