Wow. Thanks for sharing your ideas. Best of luck to everyone!
Some of my background:
I just started a new full-time job at a doctor's office as a medical assistant. For a career-changer like myself (from film/ entertainment industry to medicine!), I need this job. Not just for financial reasons, but I think working in a private practice is really giving me a chance to experience what being a doctor will be like. I"ve really only been at this new job for a week if you count shadowing, and I've already experienced quite a bit.
I think I'm just overwhelmed having to learn everything there is to know at a doctor's office, in addition to taking physics I with lab. I've never even volunteered at a hospital. (It's not like I didn't try -- they just didn't have room for any new volunteers this semester.) The language and the science is still pretty foreign to me.
Today was a bad day too. The doctor tried to teach me something that I just couldn't grasp, which made her half an hour late to see the first patient of the day. I could tell that I really disappointed her.
I also put her in a bad mood, which affected the rest of the office. Then I had to go to my Physics exam, which I started preparing for over the weekend. I was hoping to get as close to a perfect score as possible, since I am taking it at a community college, but I had a hard time concentrating after this morning's event at work. When I came back home today I had a good cry, so I'm feeling better. But I do feel like I need to go for a run ...and vent here on SDN...
At least, if all goes well, I can start applying in 2011. Taking Physics II this summer, Bio and O Chem I in the fall, O Chem II in the Spring, followed by MCAT and applications in the summer. I will take last few classes (Calculus/ Statistics, Biochem, Anatomy) by the time I would enroll in med school.