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You guys are all pretty awesome and giving me a bit of an inferiority complex with my more meager nontrad experiences
What's the boat in your avatar? It's been bugging me since I first saw it.
Enlisted in the Navy after 9/11, was selected for an officer accession program while deployed to Iraq. I would ultimately wind up resigning my commission, for the reasons outlined below, after nearly 9 years of active duty service. I had always planned on attending law school and actually utilizing that degree in Criminal Justice. Life apparently had other plans for me. In October 2008 my wife gave birth to 29 week triplet girls. On day 1 of life one of my daughters was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot and a chromosomal deletion known commonly as DiGeorge Syndrome. After a lengthy NICU stay for all 3, my special needs daughter would still require multiple open heart surgeries and catheterizations, neurosurgery, while also having a severely compromised immune system resulting in over 15 hospitalizations to date.
As challenging as the last 3 + years have been they, and more specifically my daughter, led me to medicine. With the support of my wife and family I began taking the pre reqs for med school. Often missing class to take my daughters to appointments or simply being in the hospital for weeks at a time with my daughter proved beyond challenging. I was unwilling to deploy or be away from my daughter and family during these tumultuous times. This is what necessitated my resignation. Obviously completing all of the pre reqs, studying for and taking the MCAT, and enduring the application process was difficult to say the least. These life experiences and what I have learned from them are what I will bring to the medical profession. I love reading the Non-trad board. Everyone has such compelling stories. Good luck to all those still pursuing their dream.
Accepted Class of 2016 MD
Wow...really great stuff everyone! There are some amazing people on these boards.
Even though it has come with some challenges and other "life experiences" I wouldn't trade my non-trad status for the traditional route any day...I have a feeling most of you guys would say the same.
then walked back to Mexico over the next five months.
Enlisted in the Navy after 9/11, was selected for an officer accession program while deployed to Iraq. I would ultimately wind up resigning my commission, for the reasons outlined below, after nearly 9 years of active duty service. I had always planned on attending law school and actually utilizing that degree in Criminal Justice. Life apparently had other plans for me. In October 2008 my wife gave birth to 29 week triplet girls. On day 1 of life one of my daughters was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot and a chromosomal deletion known commonly as DiGeorge Syndrome. After a lengthy NICU stay for all 3, my special needs daughter would still require multiple open heart surgeries and catheterizations, neurosurgery, while also having a severely compromised immune system resulting in over 15 hospitalizations to date.
As challenging as the last 3 + years have been they, and more specifically my daughter, led me to medicine. With the support of my wife and family I began taking the pre reqs for med school. Often missing class to take my daughters to appointments or simply being in the hospital for weeks at a time with my daughter proved beyond challenging. I was unwilling to deploy or be away from my daughter and family during these tumultuous times. This is what necessitated my resignation. Obviously completing all of the pre reqs, studying for and taking the MCAT, and enduring the application process was difficult to say the least. These life experiences and what I have learned from them are what I will bring to the medical profession. I love reading the Non-trad board. Everyone has such compelling stories. Good luck to all those still pursuing their dream.
Accepted Class of 2016 MD
Great thread, OP.
In short, spent 8 years as a pastor. I founded an urban church, and the only one in the world at the time that congregated in a functioning strip club. I also pastored at a church for the homeless that congregated on the streets of our downtown. During that time, to make ends meet, I worked as a supervisor at a home for at-risk teenage boys. Also, unfortunately, my mother was diagnosed with early onset dementia. I moved back home to help my dad caretake. My mom living with dementia, and me helping care for her, has been the paramount experience for me in influencing my decision to pursue medicine.
I wish everyone here the very best on your journey.
now that is a church i could see myself attending. honey i am going to church! winning.
Not sure what constitutes nontrad around here, but I label myself as one.
My mother was a traveling nurse and single parent, and I really hated living in northern Maine where she was on assignment when I was 14. So I ran away from home, illegally dropped out of school, and house jumped between family members, making it from ME to FL and finally to KY. When I was seventeen I moved to Massachusetts to be with a girl I had met on a previous travel assignment, and I haven't left yet (though oddly enough, the girl did leave).
It's probably a mixture of spending a lot of time in rural hospitals with my mother, and just a drive not to be a failure that led me to medicine. I am traditional in the sense that I began college knowing I would go into medicine. I am nontraditional because of these early experiences, and probably things I have done since beginning college. I moved to the Middle East (on a government grant) to learn Arabic, and almost immediately afterwards backpacked Mexico and Central America (I don't speak Spanish, but I found a one way ticket to Mexico for $99). I took another break from school to move to Germany to learn German -- but I ended up becoming romantically involved with a German surgical resident, and her superior English didn't help my progress in German. I have also worked as an EMT/ED tech full time since starting college (with a few LOAs thrown in for travel purposes), and my degree is in economics/Arabic, which is why I am doing an informal post-bacc presently.
This year I'm hiking the PCT southbound as part of a fundraiser for the ALS Association (and just for myself).
I used to be Sylvester the cat at Six Flags. Does that count?