We're done already??

Honestly I can’t believe I’m on this side reflecting on something that I can vividly remember hoping for less than a year ago. More frequently as we get closer to graduation, I find myself (while washing my dishes or trying to go to bed at night) wondering how I have come this far, and in this direction? Moving to New Orleans, LA from Madison, WI was not even a remote possibility in the recent past, and in that point in my life, I didn’t know how I was going to ever fulfill my life-long dream of becoming a doctor. I was at a point where the only thing I could do was take the next step forward, no matter where it led.

To summarize it in one word, this year of classes and community service, of new friends and incredible mentors, of discovering who I am in a city across the country has been incredibly . . . therapeutic. I have loved the curriculum of this program, even when I have dreaded it. I think an M.S. in Pharmacology has prepared me incredibly well for a future as a medical student, because it has forced me to learn how I really learn. Some of my main academic priorities this year (aside from improving my GPA) were to manage my time better, approach class material proactively, and reflect on my decisions in order to improve my future performance. Over the course of this year (and countless exams) I have definitely worked on all of those, and I feel I am a better student now than I ever was in college. I look forward to each lecture and class, because I know that it is yet another challenge from which to learn.

In addition to the curriculum, there is the fact that this program has an amazing set of professors and staff who make each day a little easier. Through both the constant encouragement and the ever-increasing expectations our professors have for us, I think we have all grown in ways we had not anticipated. This is especially true in our electives, where we have had to learn how best to approach new material and understand it in a way that allows us the ability to explain it to our classmates. Through these different electives we have constantly been under the pressure to make connections between material that we have learned earlier, and material that is brand new to us. I leave graduate school knowing that I have the tools and a greater ability to approach scientific material with a higher level of understanding then before. I leave with a confidence in myself and my ability to learn that I had been sorely lacking as I left my undergraduate university.

 

Choosing to come to this program has also opened many doors to becoming involved in a community that thrives off of community service. In the 48 hours I have spent this semester volunteering (and in the ~30 hours last semester), I have sought out ways to become involved in this city through various means. Early last year I started by volunteering through events and opportunities that were presented to us: a Tulane sponsored community service day, Habitat for Humanity. As I became more comfortable with my environment (and my ability to navigate the buses), I started volunteering at KIPP and at CGHC in Algiers. Not only have I been able to explore this city and its different neighborhoods by volunteering, but I have also met so many amazing people who are committed to making a difference. In my interview for City Year New Orleans in March I was asked why I want to stay here, and I had the benefit of my experience volunteering to help provide me with that answer. This city, through the teachers, students, health-care providers, construction workers, non-profit leaders, parents, tourists and locals, has shown me what it means to be committed to service. They truly love New Orleans: that sort of love that encompasses the good and the bad. But they also love it enough to help it change and grow and serve its entire community. Everywhere I volunteer, everywhere I go, people here are passionate about making a positive change in New Orleans and in this world. I could not be more excited to stay here to work with City Year, and to continue to see how this experience will help me fulfill my desire to serve, and guide me in pursuing my goal of medical school.  

With our last exam today, and this as my last official blog post, I leave graduate school just 10 months later with a whole new sense of self. I may have come here at a loss to what I was doing with my life and how I was working towards my dreams, forced to take life one slow step at a time. But I am finishing with the knowledge that that “one-step-at-a-time” approach was exactly what I needed. My future doesn’t look quite as confusing right now. My next steps are a bit clearer: take the MCAT at the end of May, apply to medical schools starting in June, become an official City Year Corps Member in July, and go on from there. Who knows- maybe I’ll even continue to blog about it all.