Does SDN make you feel really old sometimes?

[Haemulon]

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I am going to try an experiment tonight. I'm going to take Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" and ask my sister how many of those events from the 70's and 80's she knows about. If too few, I'm going to take her out for ice cream and explain some to her. In turn, she can to teach me how to make a blog and how to make flash animations.

Dude, what a friggin cool idea! 👍

 

[spicedmanna]

10 CLEAR
15 CLS
20 PRINT "I love BASIC"
30 INPUT "Do you love it too? (Y or N)";X$
40 IF X$="Y" THEN GOTO 100
50 IF X$="N" THEN GOTO 200
60 GOTO 10
100 PRINT
110 PRINT "Awesome, a fellow non-trad!"
120 END
200 PRINT: PRINT "Too bad, Young Whipper-Snapper"
210 END

I can still see the green, pixelated after-image of similar lines as above. I remember my first, "Hello, World!" BASIC program.

I am going to try an experiment tonight. I'm going to take Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" and ask my sister how many of those events from the 70's and 80's she knows about. If too few, I'm going to take her out for ice cream and explain some to her. In turn, she can to teach me how to make a blog and how to make flash animations.

Sounds like an good trade and a lot of fun. I've got that song in my head now... 🙂

 

[MJB]

SpiroGyro

Holy crap... 🙂

I don't consider myself "old" at 30, but some of the 18 and 19 year olds on campus just blow my mind sometime.

It was very interesting last semester...i was about 30 days older than the professor...so we'd BS about different stuff we did in College....and the kids in the class would just look at us like aliens...

 

[mamadoc]

I The 32 year old has a very negative attitude towards the "immature, young students" and in many ways, I think she has limited her medical experience by closing them out. Meanwhile, I've tried hard to find people, younger or older, in my class who I have things in common with, and I've been pleasantly surprised. I enjoy conversations with the girl who just turned 21 last month just as much as my friends who are 23, 24, and 32. Yeah, their enthusiasm about beer pong is not a turn on for me, but they have a lot to contribute and their experiences are just as valid as mine, if ever so slightly less extensive than mine!

Hey hey hey I LIKE playing beer pong! But I agree, having a superior attitude because you're older is unfortunate and will really limit your experience AND your fun. My med school classmates were about the same age as my oldest son (true!) but that didn't stop me from quoting GhostBusters lines back and forth with one of my pals on OB/Gyn or going to the bar with everyone after our first big BioChem exam.

Sure, there WERE some immature idiots in my class but ya know what, a lot of the traditional-aged folks also thought they were idiots.

My own feeling has always been that you should have to have your own job and your own health insurance (or lack thereof) before you become a doctor. Being on your parents' health insurance plan, or being able to go to student health for whatever, is NOT the real world of health care, that's for sure.

 

[Doctor~Detroit]

My first real computer was a Tandy 1000 (Go Radio Shack!!!!). And yes, I was really into programming in basic. When PC's finally got away from working from the "c:/" prompts, I was actually kinda bummed. Since then, I have known less and less about computers as each year has passed. ... sigh. 🙁

10 CLEAR
15 CLS
20 PRINT "I love BASIC"
30 INPUT "Do you love it too? (Y or N)";X$
40 IF X$="Y" THEN GOTO 100
50 IF X$="N" THEN GOTO 200
60 GOTO 10
100 PRINT
110 PRINT "Awesome, a fellow non-trad!"
120 END
200 PRINT: PRINT "Too bad, Young Whipper-Snapper"
210 END

I'm sure I probably messed it up (forget exactly how now), but you get the idea. 😉

two "end" statements? psssht. clean up the code with a gosub routine.😉

my first rig was my older brother's apple II+. my crowning achievement in basic was using the draw command and delayed screen refresh for animation. not that i remember anything about basic now . . . i also got bummed when windows overtook dos (less flexibility and all), and now i know jack about computers.

 

[Wackie]

I feel you, bro. I can still remember the first day that I saw Michael Jackson's Thriller on MTV in 1983 on our huge family CRT television; mind-blowing. I remember retiring my out-of-style bell-bottoms, visiting the Wonder Bread store with my mom, who had a beehive hairstyle, the great blizzard in Virginia (ca. 1978), booting up an Apple IIe in BASIC, the short-lived 8-track and BETA, the end of Disco and the beginning of Synth Pop, playing "pong" on the original Atari system, the "I'd like to teach the world to sing..." Coca-Cola commercials, the first time that ET phoned home, when a farm boy from Tatooine realized his destiny, Axel F, when a small-time Phily boxer with a lot of heart beat Apollo Creed, when an Alien burst from people's belly (I couldn't sleep for days), when Harrison Ford retired replicants, Reagan-nomics, the Cold War, the first time Challenger went up into space and when it blew up, from Risky Business to Ferris Bueller's day off, browsing the Internet through Lynx (a text browser), being a part of the dot-coms, and I guess I could go on and on. 😀

Wow, what a trip down memory lane. Yeah, it's a different world now, but those were some good times. Here's to many more to come. 😀

Aww crap

I remember my friends and I talking about how Michael Jackson really did turn into a vampire at the end of Thriller.
Atari, yep
The first Nintendo-I remember having to blow on the game and in the slot to get it to work. I also had the track game with the little pad you were supposed to run on, but instead used your hands so you could run faster. That was some cool stuff!

I don't know if it was BASIC that I had to learn in middle school. There was some super-duper programing program we had to learn in computer lab (I was the first class they required it-big deal). 🙄

I remember the old "internet" like Prodigy, when emails weren't free...

My dad worked for IBM. My little brother and I used to go with him to back up the computers...on TAPE!

Perms with curls that were too tight. Oh, and remember crimping your hair? hahaha!

Scariest movie evar....Jaws! I wouldn't even go swimming in a pool for a while because I thought he could swim in from the ocean through the grates!

 

[Haemulon]

two "end" statements? psssht. clean up the code with a gosub routine.😉

my first rig was my older brother's apple II+. my crowning achievement in basic was using the draw command and delayed screen refresh for animation. not that i remember anything about basic now . . . i also got bummed when windows overtook dos (less flexibility and all), and now i know jack about computers.

You are so right about GOSUB/RETURN (sigh). I remember the days when I could quickly write a complex database routine complete with a half decent graphical interphase, all in BASIC. Ah well. I miss those old DOS days. Now i'm just as ignorant as average Joe "never used a computer before" Smoe. I'm going back to FTP and Gopher now and will spend my time connecting to dial up BBS's, forget all this world wide web stuff. 😛

 

[defboy]

You guys had the good stuff...I was stuck with BMX Bike, the theme music still beats in my head as I right this. I still have an old Nintendo with Mario/Duck I never could get the Olympics thing to work for me. And the 5 1/4" floppies my dad hated throwing them away in 95 for the new computer. The old computer had the same memory as my daughters Leap Frog, maybe. I still have an 8track player and some Chicago, Joel, CCR, etc. I may have to fire it up when I get off work. Thanks for reminding me of how great those days were.👍

 

[bookmaven]

I will grant you, there are a few immature ones. There is this one guy that really makes me wonder how he managed to get past the interview process. The kind of guy who still thinks poop jokes are not only funny, but completely appropriate in all settings.

Maybe he wants to be a GI!

 

[Shpamme]

oops.. sorry. i duplicated my post.

 

[Shpamme]

In honor of this thread, and in recognition of Haemulon's acceptance, I've changed my avatar..

Sigh...too many hours spent playing Oregon Trail. Was this just a West Coast thing?

Anyhow.. Congratulations Haemulon!

 

[bookmaven]

In honor of this thread, and in recognition of Haemulon's acceptance, I've changed my avatar..

Sigh...too many hours spent playing Oregon Trail. Was this just a West Coast thing?

Anyhow.. Congratulations Haemulon!

I grew up in Wisconsin and Oregon Trail was a real favorite.

What about "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?" (Not the stupid TV show!)

 

[FightOn]

In honor of this thread, and in recognition of Haemulon's acceptance, I've changed my avatar..

Sigh...too many hours spent playing Oregon Trail. Was this just a West Coast thing?

Anyhow.. Congratulations Haemulon!

I loved playing Oregon Trail.....sigh...such fond memories. 🙄

 

[Haemulon]

In honor of this thread, and in recognition of Haemulon's acceptance, I've changed my avatar..

Sigh...too many hours spent playing Oregon Trail. Was this just a West Coast thing?

Anyhow.. Congratulations Haemulon!

I love it it! I havn't thought about that game in forever 👍

 

[pingouin]

I grew up in Wisconsin and Oregon Trail was a real favorite.

What about "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?" (Not the stupid TV show!)

I used to play that on our Apple IIC.

 

[Beau Geste]

I used to play that on our Apple IIC.

Ditto! She was always at Carlsbad Caverns for me 😉

 

[medic11306]

I totally get what you are saying. I loved the 80's. I get those warm fuzzies thinking back to the Goonies, break dancing, MTV with actual music videos all day, garbage pail kids cards, and all kinds of stuff like that. I was on one of the Pre-Allo threads earlier and referred to one of the old Dr. Pepper commercials where they sing "i'm a pepper, your a pepper, he's a pepper, she's a pepper, wouldn't you like to be a pepper to?" They had no idea what I was talking about. How many of you remember the "Where's the Beef" commercials?? That huge time gap between the release of Back to the Future 1 and 2? How about those original Atari games? The Commodore 64? 5 1/4" floppy disks? We live in a different world now. But I remember my parents saying very similar things about their "simpler" times as well. But then again they didn't have Madonna singing "Pappa Don't Preach" on the radio. So it really is just a normal generational thing I suppose. 🙂

WOW! Was that a flash back rush! Man I was reading through some of the posts and starting to feel very sorry for my own children. It seems funny that I have listened to my grandparents talk of the simplier life and here we go at ourselves.

I saw the "How many remember the "Where's the beef" commercial" and I about fell out of my chair laughing. I too had the Atari 2600, went to drive-in movies ($5.00 a CAR LOAD), played Oregon Trail on a Commadore computer, loved the Goonies (and still watch it everytime it re-runs on HBO), remember watching Seseme Street and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, Capt. Kangaroo every Saturday followed by the Looney Toons, bell bottoms to parachute pants, the list runs on and on...Ahhh nostalgia...

Makes me wonder what lies in store in our fast paced world of today turning into tomorrow.😕

 

[scrump]

After months of reading and responding to posts about whether or not someone can bring Mom and Dad with them on their interview day or how bad it might be to have to do your own laundry and pay for one's own rent, I have really started to feel out of touch with the typical med school applicant. I am sympathetic of course, I had all of those same concerns at that age too, but being out in the real world for so long now and having my own family its almost funny to think of having to do the "becoming a grown up" thing at the same time as starting a medical career. For all the drawbacks that come with being a non-trad, at least thats one thing we don't have to worry about. Then again, those years were really some of the best of my life in terms of freedom from responsibility and sharing experiencs with friends and just enjoying life, so I am envious somewhat as well. I love the diversity here on SDN.

I don't feel old because I stick to the non-trad forums.

If anything, I feel young on this particular forum at 35.

😀

 

[Pemberley]

I grew up in Wisconsin and Oregon Trail was a real favorite.

What about "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?" (Not the stupid TV show!)

Wow, I haven't thought about those in forever. But yes, I definitely put in some time on both of those during the summers.

 

[LINYKid]

Im so glad I found this thread. I am 27 hoping to finish my post bachelor work within the next year and hopefully start med school before 30.

Thanks all for making me feel better if I see one more thread about I am 21 blah blah or 22 etc

 

[LINYKid]

I remember Oregon Trail
Do you remember the choose your own adventure books, and now I am getting Carmen Sandiego flashbacks

 

[Quix]

sorry.. this isn't 100% on point.. but if it makes you feel any better, i am 28, and recently my 20-year old little sister (who also happens to be applying to med school...great...) said something that made me feel really old:

"dude, i heard this really good song by this new band called u2.. have you heard of them?"

uh....

Overheard when I was in graduate school (before my post-bacc):

"Who are the Beatles?"

I started looking into cemetary plots when I heard that.

 

[pingouin]

Overheard when I was in graduate school (before my post-bacc):

"Who are the Beatles?"

I started looking into cemetary plots when I heard that.

that just makes me want to cry a little bit. 🙁

on Halloween, one of the residents at one of the hospitals where I work dressed up (somewhat convincingly) as Magnum, PI.

overheard:
Charge Nurse: Oh my! Tom Selleck is at the hospital! *fakes swooning*
Nursing Student 1: Who's Tom Selleck?
Nursing Student 2: You know. He's the guy that played Monica's boyfriend on Friends!

*sigh* *single tear rolls down cheek*

 

[DreamLover]

I don't actually belong in this forum anymore I guess since I'm about to finish medical school in May, but I turn 30 in about 6 weeks and even though I'm only about 4 years older than most of my classmates, I still saw plenty of differences but it was never an issue and it won't be for any of you either, so don't waste too much time worrying about that!

I just got a huge kick out of the trip down memory lane...for I too

-blew on the ends of my nintendo games to get them to work
-played Oregon Trail (In the computer lab which consisted of 3 apple II Cs on carts) and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego and I loved them both so much that for Christmas a year ago I got my 7 yr old neice both of those games for her computer (Both on CDs now of course)
-used prodigy on my first computer (Tandy from Radio Shack)
-played my Atari 2600 until about last year when the old 13inch TV I was using for it (because I was using the old "TV/Computer" switch) finally broke

and the list goes on and on

Sometimes it amazes me at the similarity of our lives considering we are from all parts of the country

I remember the Christmas where "Santa" brought my Brother the Thriller Album (With the Michal Jackson foldout) and he brought me Olivia Newton John's "Let's Get Physical" album (and I thought it was a workout song!)

 

[e_phn]

Wasn't there..a 50 something years old person who wants to attend med school? I remember reading it somewhere on SDN. I wonder how he's doing...

Really, age shouldn't be a concern unless you're very, very, very old. 😀

 

[Think Big]

At my first med school interview one of the hosts said that I looked way too calm and collected for this to be my first interview. I replied that I had gone through a job search about two months prior so I was still in the "interview mindset". One of the undergrads who was also there for an interview looked at me and said "wow, a job interview. What are those like?!"

I told him they were basically the same except you have to convince someone to pay you $40,000 a year instead of the other way around 😉

 

[spicedmanna]

One of the undergrads who was also there for an interview looked at me and said "wow, a job interview. What are those like?!"

I told him they were basically the same except you have to convince someone to pay you $40,000 a year instead of the other way around 😉

👍

 

[Shpamme]

I am going to try an experiment tonight. I'm going to take Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" and ask my sister how many of those events from the 70's and 80's she knows about. If too few, I'm going to take her out for ice cream and explain some to her. In turn, she can to teach me how to make a blog and how to make flash animations.

So..the way this went down is:
1. She knew just 5 of the events
2. I shelled out the dough for ice cream
3. She did not teach me about blogs; instead (these young kids are quite sly...) she schooled me in the latest goings-on of Hollywood starlets
4. I, being "old", got tired early and fell asleep before I really taught her much

But hey, at least I now know that Paris Hilton apparently stole Hilary Duff's old boyfriend and had the contents of her storage locker stolen and put up for sale on the internet.

Sorry Haemulon and others on this thread--I can't help but feel I have let you down in some way.. 😕

 

[Doctor Bagel]

"Who are the Beatles?"

That person's just a freak. My 16 y/o niece knows who the Beatles are. 😱

I remember Carmen Sandiago. We played it in extended studies in middle school. My parents' first computer was an Apple IIe, and I didn't send my first email until I started college. I also remember my mom taking programming classes in the early 80s and using those punch cards.

Speaking of the internet, my husband claims myspace is a flashback to 1998 based both on content and on the horrid page designs (you know, black background with white text). I guess it is sort of like the early internet days when everyone had their own website. The other 1998 flashback is that my parents wind up on all these joke mailing lists. I think the real old people are doing that now. 😱

 

[Krisss17]

Hey...you stole my cat...just kidding, but I have one that looks just like that one!

I love you guys that talk about the 80s and reminiscing...while me, I can watch "That 70's show" and totally relate.

I remember when VCRs first came on the market (I think I was about 12 when we got one and it cost over $1000). How about Pac-Man, or Ms. Pac-Man?

Nothing makes you feel the age difference more than when one of your professors is way younger than you! Or having a student saying that they were born in 1983, and here I'm thinking...I graduated high school that year!

The good thing is though, by going back to school as a non-trad, you feel younger than your contemporaries.

Krisss17
Class of...dare I say it 2014! (What a way to celebrate my 50th year on this planet!

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Hey...you stole my cat...just kidding, but I have one that looks just like that one!

I love you guys that talk about the 80s and reminiscing...while me, I can watch "That 70's show" and totally relate.

I remember when VCRs first came on the market (I think I was about 12 when we got one and it cost over $1000). How about Pac-Man, or Ms. Pac-Man?

Nothing makes you feel the age difference more than when one of your professors is way younger than you! Or having a student saying that they were born in 1983, and here I'm thinking...I graduated high school that year!

The good thing is though, by going back to school as a non-trad, you feel younger than your contemporaries.

Krisss17
Class of...dare I say it 2014! (What a way to celebrate my 50th year on this planet!

Yeah, I've realized tuxedos aren't the rarest cats around. 🙂

I remember getting our first VCR, but my family was a little slow on the VCR curve. I also remember that you could rent them for a while, which we would do for special treats.

Yeah, my classmates who are 23 think they're old because they took a year off before going to med school. 😱

 

[Haemulon]

So..the way this went down is:
1. She knew just 5 of the events
2. I shelled out the dough for ice cream
3. She did not teach me about blogs; instead (these young kids are quite sly...) she schooled me in the latest goings-on of Hollywood starlets
4. I, being "old", got tired early and fell asleep before I really taught her much

But hey, at least I now know that Paris Hilton apparently stole Hilary Duff's old boyfriend and had the contents of her storage locker stolen and put up for sale on the internet.

Sorry Haemulon and others on this thread--I can't help but feel I have let you down in some way.. 😕

Oh no! Its ok. At least now you can go online and bid for Paris's medical records or something.

 

[QofQuimica]

Here's a good med school story for those of you who have classmates that don't remember the 80s:

The lecturer, who was maybe 40ish, was trying to make the point that you have to use appropriate vocabulary for your audience. A lot of physicians use too much jargon with their patients, etc. etc. So for an example, she wrote this sentence:

"There's a smokey doing flip-flops on 78."

And then she asked who understood that. I said, "It's a cop on the highway setting a speed trap." One of my trad classmates asked me how I knew that. I said that I used to have a CB when I was in high school and college. So he looks at me and asks what the heck a "ceevee" is. I told him that back in the 80s and early 90s, before most people had cell phones, we used CB radios, kind of like walky talkies. (He did at least know what a walky talky was!) And smokey was the CB lingo for cop. Anyway, the prof's point was well-made. It was just funny that in this case, it was the TRADS who were out of the loop, while *I* was the one in the know.

 

[Haemulon]

Here's a good med school story for those of you who have classmates that don't remember the 80s:

The lecturer, who was maybe 40ish, was trying to make the point that you have to use appropriate vocabulary for your audience. A lot of physicians use too much jargon with their patients, etc. etc. So for an example, she wrote this sentence:

"There's a smokey doing flip-flops on 78."

And then she asked who understood that. I said, "It's a cop on the highway setting a speed trap." One of my trad classmates asked me how I knew that. I said that I used to have a CB when I was in high school and college. So he looks at me and asks what the heck a "ceevee" is. I told him that back in the 80s and early 90s, before most people had cell phones, we used CB radios, kind of like walky talkies. (He did at least know what a walky talky was!) And smokey was the CB lingo for cop. Anyway, the prof's point was well-made. It was just funny that in this case, it was the TRADS who were out of the loop, while *I* was the one in the know.

That hilarious. I used to talk on CB's all the time, even had a base station set up at my house. Used to talk about power mikes and boosters and centerloaded small antennas versus taller one's like the old Antron 99. Wow, really bring's back memories of Smokey and the Bandit and a young Sally Field/Burt Reynolds. That was long before old Burt greased himself up in vasoline as a Congressman trying to seduce Demi Moore or played the role of a porn director in Boogie Nights 😱

 

[QofQuimica]

That hilarious. I used to talk on CB's all the time, even had a base station set up at my house. Used to talk about power mikes and boosters and centerloaded small antennas versus taller one's like the old Antron 99. Wow, really bring's back memories of Smokey and the Bandit and a young Sally Field/Burt Reynolds. That was long before old Burt greased himself up in vasoline as a Congressman trying to seduce Demi Moore or played the role of a porn director in Boogie Nights 😱

Ha, yeah. She didn't age well at all. Now they even have her doing Boneva commercials, which is for osteoporosis. 😱

 

[Pemberley]

Just had to vent... you know what makes me feel even older than SDN? Soccer class. It's a fun way to get back in shape, but my body's telling me about it. 😱 Those freshmen running circles around me? When I was a freshman, they were in 1st or 2nd grade.

I really hadn't thought that I was that old, but my athletic recovery just isn't what it used to be. 😳

 

[menaniac]

My first real computer was a Tandy 1000 (Go Radio Shack!!!!). And yes, I was really into programming in basic. When PC's finally got away from working from the "c:/" prompts, I was actually kinda bummed. Since then, I have known less and less about computers as each year has passed. ... sigh. 🙁

10 CLEAR
15 CLS
20 PRINT "I love BASIC"
30 INPUT "Do you love it too? (Y or N)";X$
40 IF X$="Y" THEN GOTO 100
50 IF X$="N" THEN GOTO 200
60 GOTO 10
100 PRINT
110 PRINT "Awesome, a fellow non-trad!"
120 END
200 PRINT: PRINT "Too bad, Young Whipper-Snapper"
210 END

I'm sure I probably messed it up (forget exactly how now), but you get the idea. 😉

Dude! That was my first computer too! With a cassette tape drive! The thing used these normal sized cassettes with only 5-minutes of tape on them, and you would load programs based on the "inch" of tape where you had stored it. Oh yeah...and the simplest program took 10 minutes to load. *sigh* Those were the days! I actually got a paper route so I could save money for my first Atari. Asteroids and Tank. Most boring games in the world, but somehow so satisfying...

Finding this thread has made me feel soooo much better about starting school in the fall. I'm not the only one out there with my reference points. I do have a feeling that I will be the oldest in my class, though. 37. Ugh. I actually had an interviewer tell me that it was a good thing that I look much younger than I am or no one would ever let me in! You'd think they'd be more interested in whether my synapses are still firing properly than the wrinkles (or lack therof) on my face... that comment made success that much sweeter. 🙂

 

[LadyWolverine]

Wow. I'm so happy to know that there are others out there that feel the way that I have been feeling lately. I knew that I would be on the older end of the spectrum when coming to medical school. I just didn't realize how conscious of my age I would be at times.
As much as I truly enjoy spending time with my younger classmates (many of them are actually relatively mature, wonderful, and caring people), I often find myself craving contact with other people in their late twenties/early thirties, preferably outside of medical school. The problem? I moved to a new city where I didn't know anyone, and bought a home in a rather isolated, rough section of town. So it's tough to meet other people my age with similar interests outside of school.
I'm not married, and I don't have children - are there any others out there like me? If so, how do you find the time to meet people your age, outside of school, in a new city? When I was working/in graduate school, I had plenty of friends and acquaintances, all with diverse interests and goals. Now, several years later, I find myself surrounded by the type of people that I was happy to leave behind after undergrad (that is, the "pre-med" personality type that we all know and love so much). I must admit, it's draining at times. How do you build a new base in a new location, starting from scratch? Anybody else having similar concerns?

 

[QofQuimica]

Wow. I'm so happy to know that there are others out there that feel the way that I have been feeling lately. I knew that I would be on the older end of the spectrum when coming to medical school. I just didn't realize how conscious of my age I would be at times.
As much as I truly enjoy spending time with my younger classmates (many of them are actually relatively mature, wonderful, and caring people), I often find myself craving contact with other people in their late twenties/early thirties, preferably outside of medical school. The problem? I moved to a new city where I didn't know anyone, and bought a home in a rather isolated, rough section of town. So it's tough to meet other people my age with similar interests outside of school.
I'm not married, and I don't have children - are there any others out there like me? If so, how do you find the time to meet people your age, outside of school, in a new city? When I was working/in graduate school, I had plenty of friends and acquaintances, all with diverse interests and goals. Now, several years later, I find myself surrounded by the type of people that I was happy to leave behind after undergrad (that is, the "pre-med" personality type that we all know and love so much). I must admit, it's draining at times. How do you build a new base in a new location, starting from scratch? Anybody else having similar concerns?

I'm in the same general situation, it seems like. My closest friends here at med school (I knew no one here before I came) are the prof whose lab I worked in last summer before classes started, an M3 at my school whose email I got last year at my interview and who is a fellow single, female PhD-to-MD, and one of my nontrad classmates. I would say to start with the nontrad upperclassmen at your med school, and then things will kind of spiral out from there. They've been here longer, and they know more people. Like, the M3 that I am friends with introduced me to another single PhD who is an assistant prof. in history, and now I am friends with her too. The three of us hang out semi-regularly, and the best part of the whole thing is that in that crowd, I'm the youngest. 😀

 

[sunnyjohn]

I'm 34 today.

SDn makes me feel very smart and very "kewl"!👍

 

[rushrules1]

Hope this cheers you guys and gals up. I borrowed it from someone's blog.

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height.

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. " An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, Whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away

 

[Haemulon]

I am actually kind of looking forward to getting away from my circle of friends for med school. While I am on a waiting list at a school in my home town, I am excited to have an acceptance in another state for a number of reasons. I live very close to a close group of friends and family that I hang out with all the time. I really enjoy all of the good times and security in being part of such a great group, but sometimes I think that it will be a major distraction for me in med school. Being way from all of that, I am hoping that I can just focus on being the absolute best that I can be in medical school. I suppose that I can do that here at home as well, but the urge to throw down a couple hundred brewskis with the guys a couple times a week and help work on eachothers home-remodeling projects will likely win out over studying if i'm not carefull.

There is also something to be said for dissappearing for a while (4 years to be exact) and to return a changed person, to return as a Doctor. I don't know, I think there might be something cool about the wow factor later when I can share all of my tales from the trenches, especially after residency. But I am already married with kids, so its somewhat of a different situation because I do have them to come home to irregardless. If I were single I might have a different perspective. I am looking forward to working with a number of the cool SDNers that have been accepted to the same school as me. So in a sense I will already know some people still.

 

[Haemulon]

Hey, since I mentioned home remodeling ... have any of you found that you get super excited about very different types of things as you get older. For instance, trips to Home Depot always get me pumped up, almost nothing better than coming home with some unfinished wood or hardware and a new power tool. When my friends and I replaced my small 150A circuit breaker panel with an expanded 200A, we just stood their admiring the beauty of the newly organized wires and crisp new extra breakers. You'd think we were gazing at some gorgeous stripper And don't even get me started about the awesome wood smell of a freshly erected detached garage! 👍 😉

 

[docdo2007]

I'm done venting

 

[Shpamme]

You know what REALLY aggravates me about the younger crowd? They complain about not having enough time to study. So what are they doing all evening after class??? I am picking my kids up from school, grocery shopping for a fam of 5, doing PTA stuff, helping with homework, getting a drink for someone, cooking dinner, cleaning up the latest Koolaid spill, doing the dishes, while keeping the laundry going, giving baths, reading a bedtime story, and THEN starting on homework and studying. UGH!!! And they don't have enough time??? Kills me, just kills me.

Dang...you are my hero!! Haha.. I haven't used the word "dang" in years. Or crud, or radical, or rad, or totally tubular. And is anyone familiar with this--we used to call gunners "smacks." (God, did I actually used to say that stuff?)

Do you ever use MomMD forums? There are a lot of really inspiring women on those forums who have similar stories. I really admire your stamina!!

 

[mitawa]

Trust me occasionally when I get together with some of my fellow classmates I am reminded of a "wee" bit of an age gap. Not everyone knows that Jem was truly amazing, Mr Rogers was the best neighbor, Atari and Sega Genesis were once the hot games (Afterburner anyone), and that Wonder Woman could completely take the Bionic Woman! In my opinion at least!!😀

 

[QofQuimica]

One of the hardest things for me to adjust to in medical school was the technology. Seriously, I couldn't even connect my laptop to the projector without help when I first got here.

Another example: I had never used any kind of referencing software, which shocked my young classmates. They wanted to know how I wrote papers without it. I told them that I had written my entire 200 page DISSERTATION without it just last year. Now that I've learned to use one of these programs on an adequate level, I don't see what all the fuss was about. The program is so buggy and not user friendly that I still prefer to type in the references myself unless the prof explicitly requires us to use it.

We get on-line reading assignments on a regular basis, and I always have to print them out. I don't know what it is, but I can't sit there and read book chapters or articles on the computer. I don't view the histo slides on line or use the computer modules like most of them do. I sprang for the books instead, and that's what I use to study. I do think it's neat to be able to annotate the powerpoints and PDFs on the computer, and a lot of my classmates do that, but I still print them out and annotate them the old fashioned way. 😛

 

[melissainsd]

After months of reading and responding to posts about whether or not someone can bring Mom and Dad with them on their interview day or how bad it might be to have to do your own laundry and pay for one's own rent, I have really started to feel out of touch with the typical med school applicant. I am sympathetic of course, I had all of those same concerns at that age too, but being out in the real world for so long now and having my own family its almost funny to think of having to do the "becoming a grown up" thing at the same time as starting a medical career. For all the drawbacks that come with being a non-trad, at least thats one thing we don't have to worry about. Then again, those years were really some of the best of my life in terms of freedom from responsibility and sharing experiencs with friends and just enjoying life, so I am envious somewhat as well. I love the diversity here on SDN.

I am Mom.

 

[Beau Geste]

Honestly, I would never have thought to bring my mom and dad to ANY interview.

 

[Beau Geste]

Trust me occasionally when I get together with some of my fellow classmates I am reminded of a "wee" bit of an age gap. Not everyone knows that Jem was truly amazing, Mr Rogers was the best neighbor, Atari and Sega Genesis were once the hot games (Afterburner anyone), and that Wonder Woman could completely take the Bionic Woman! In my opinion at least!!😀

Jem! OMG! Total flash-back! I used to have Jem battle my She-Ra dolls 😉