{"id":8888,"date":"2017-06-07T17:55:58","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T17:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.picmonic.com\/pages\/?p=8888"},"modified":"2023-06-02T14:39:49","modified_gmt":"2023-06-02T14:39:49","slug":"medical-school-journey-med-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.picmonic.com\/pages\/medical-school-journey-med-student\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflecting on my Lifelong Medical School Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"Where did my medical school journey begin? I\u00a0thought back on my journey as I answered this question:\n\n\u201cWhy do you want to pursue medicine?\u201d<\/em>\n\nIt\u2019s the question I was asked on my AMCAS application, numerous secondary applications, and every single medical school interview. You have to make sure your reason is unique, but that it\u2019s not so crazy that you\u2019ll be marked as unbelievable. Of course, you want your story to tug at heartstrings\u2026but not so much that you turn into a sob story. \u00a0<\/span>\n\n\"myAll in all, it\u2019s a loaded question that requires the perfect answer; and everyone\u2019s \u201cperfect\u201d answer will be a little different.<\/span>\n\nNow that I have less than 2 months until medical school classes start, I\u2019ve been thinking more and more about my answer to this question and how it\u2019s evolved over time. For those of you writing your personal statements, or even preparing for your flurry of interviews, this could give you some ideas on how to weave your lifelong medical school journey into a cohesive story. (If you\u2019re still a couple years away from applying, here\u2019s a snapshot of what I did to get into medical school.)<\/span>\n\nIf AMCAS didn\u2019t enforce a word limit, my personal statement would have looked like something like this\u2026<\/span>\n

How I Decided I Wanted to Be a Doctor<\/h2>\n\"medicalI was born on the east coast not too long after my parents, both medical graduates, had moved to the United States. At the time, my dad was doing his residency in a small hospital in a scary part of town and we all lived in a small apartment in an even scarier part of town. <\/span>\n\nYou know how in movies you\u2019ll see grandparents telling their ungrateful children about how, back in their day, they used to walk hours in the snow to get to school? Well, my dad\u2019s commute to work was pretty much like that (except it took place in my day and he never uses it to guilt trip me). You see, my parents didn\u2019t have a car and had never experienced snow until coming to America. All of this ended in my dad, every morning, snow or sleet, walking to the nearest bus stop (which wasn\u2019t\u2019 near at all) and taking hours of public transportation so he could get to his hospital and spend hours as an overworked resident.\n\nMy mom took care of me at home, which must have been miserable because I was either throwing up or watching <\/span>Barney<\/span><\/i> (there was no in between). We lived a simple life with very little\u2026 but I don\u2019t remember any of that because I was (1) a toddler and (2) my parents always gave me everything. Thankfully, internal medicine residency is only 3 years, so as soon as my dad was free, we moved west to an impossibly small town (population < 2000).<\/span>\n\nMy father was one of three medical professionals in our small town. That fact alone catapulted me to celebrity status in the sense that everyone knew who I was. At first, I didn\u2019t quite understand what my dad did; I didn\u2019t get the hype. It wasn\u2019t until my encounter with a new student in our second grade class that it hit me. I remember going up to that student after school and saying, \u201cHi, my name is Aimen! \u00a0Let\u2019s be best friends.\u201d \u00a0Upon introducing myself, my tentative new friend\u2019s face lit up and he eagerly asked me if I was my father\u2019s daughter. When I said yes, he exclaimed (as only a young child can), \u201cYour dad cured my mom! \u00a0He\u2019s the best doctor ever!\u201d<\/span>\n\nThis realization hit me hard, as I began to realize that my dad spent his entire day helping people with their health. It was in that very moment that I decided I wanted to be a doctor too, and I kept that resolve for the rest of my life.<\/span>\n\n
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Taking the Hard Medical School Journey<\/h2>\n\"medicalMy parents, having gone through all the hurdles themselves, did a pretty solid job of mentally preparing me for how tough my medical school journey was going to be. In fact, after second grade I began apprehensively thinking about the medical school application. <\/span>\n\nMy anxiety increased incrementally with each passing year and I have a very vivid memory of sitting in my 6th<\/span> grade math class, getting out my graph paper, and imagining (with dread) how difficult the MCAT was going to be. (Typical middle schooler, right?)<\/span>\n\nBy the time I started college, I was determined not to let my medical school journey beat me. At this point, my dad was a physician at Mayo Clinic and my mom had reached a point in her career where she chose her own hours and rotated from urgent care to urgent care at her leisure. We were a world away from our east coast beginnings and, during that time, my parents had learned a lot about what it means to be a physician in America.<\/span>\n\nWhen choosing a major, I settled on biomedical engineering mainly due to my parents\u2019 encouragement. They were determined to not let me box myself into a grueling profession without exploring what else was out there\u2026 and, if I still did end up choosing medicine (which of course I did), they knew I would choose it for the right reasons.<\/span>\n\nI\u2019ll be completely honest: I HATED biomedical engineering during my freshman year. <\/span>I struggled to adjust to a culture where it wasn\u2019t all about the grades and where some professors even praised B\u2019s and C\u2019s (*scream* the horror). I resented my parents for convincing me to take this path, but at the same time I was too stubborn to admit defeat and switch majors (I was such a teenager).<\/span>\n\nIt wasn\u2019t until midway through my sophomore year, when I had almost decided to switch and major in biochemistry, that my attitude began to change. I thank my biomedical product design for that turn around because it taught me about public health in relation to third-world countries. This led me on a much-needed journey that allowed me to discover the two things I wanted to do once I became a doctor.<\/span>\n

There\u2019s So Much Out There<\/h2>\nFresh out of my product design class, I decided to volunteer on a one-week public health trip to Honduras at the end of my sophomore year. The point of our trip was to build showers and stoves and cement floors in rural homes while teaching the families about proper sanitation. It was hot, there were mosquitoes. I barely knew anyone, and I was pretty useless at mixing cement. (Those shovels are way heavier than they look.)<\/span>\n\nRegardless of all of that though, it was an amazing experience that helped me realize the dire need for health education. (I would encourage anyone thinking about pursuing medicine to go on a trip like this; it will really change your perspective on what it means to help others live a healthier lifestyle.)\n\nMy second realization came much later, during my senior year. By this point, I had gone through the motions of working in various research labs. However, nothing resonated with me long-term until I began my final Capstone project. For this, I had to make a medical device and pretend I was pushing it through the FDA. (The process is insane, <\/span>just take a look<\/span><\/a>.) \u00a0Since my primary research focus had been the brain and motor coordination, I decided to make a rehab device that improved fine motor control in stroke patients.<\/span>\n\nI won\u2019t get into the nitty gritty of the entire process (because that\u2019s 4000 pages of documentation I\u2019m sure you don\u2019t want to read) but by the end of my senior year I knew that I had to have a permanent spot in the world of medical research and innovation. The way I see it is, if a patient has a problem, who better to design a solution than his or her doctor?\n\nAnd doctors <\/span>can<\/span><\/i> be a part of the medical device world; that\u2019s not reserved solely for engineers! \u00a0I didn\u2019t realize this until a recruiter from the FDA contacted me about an open position. During my interview, he casually mentioned how some of his coworkers were doctors who helped review new medical devices because they best understood human physiology. How cool is that?!)<\/span>\n\nAll of these experiences shaped my desire for pursuing medicine. Coming into college, I didn\u2019t have a vision for what I wanted to do or why I was doing it; I just wanted to go to medical school because that\u2019s what I had imagined my entire life. But now I know I want to be a doctor because I\u2019ll have the expertise and power to improve my patients\u2019 lives not only in the operating room, but beyond it as well.<\/span>\n\nAfter all, if I don\u2019t want to help my patients in every way I can, why would I even become a doctor?<\/span>\n\nKeep up with Aimen\u2019s medical school journey as a first year medical student by following her on Instagram @lil_waimen<\/span><\/i>.<\/span>\n\n
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