finished p1, now bored and a bit depressed, tell me if you've gone thru this

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steveysmith54

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So i finished p1... got very mediocre grades, mostly b's.
I became very unmotivated in the middle of p1 as i was faced with situation in my life i never experienced before... I come from a kind of a poor family. So, in HS i really wanted to get into college. In undergrad i really wanted to get into pharmd program. Now, i felt like what's my next goal. I mean now it felt like all is left is memorizes all this drug info. everyday seemed like it was the same. it was almost like i had nothing to strive for. Retail jobs just seemed like whatever to me, hectic, repetitive, occasionally rewarding. just a way to give myself a comfortable life. Hospital and residency are def not for me.

The girls in my pharmacy schools are older than me and majority are not single. So i stayed single.

Now, i am home going out with my friends like every other day and feel like i am not accomplishing anyting.

Any advice other than prozac? 🙂
 
You can try to be motivated in thinking about what your future prospects are - ok so you say you want to do retail pharmacy, well then, what are things in retail pharmacy that you can improve? Maybe, improve something to make yourself more functional, improve your counseling skills, what to think of to say when you have angry patients, etc?

Hmm regarding girls, it's the same with me for guys. Most guys are either.. into their books, have a girlfriend (or boyfriend), and just aren't the type I want to go out with. They're also usually younger, or a lot older. I actually want someone who can communicate with my parents and I don't think any of them can (majority of my class is Caucasian, I'm Asian).

Look for something else to do with your career. I know when I graduate, I want to volunteer in emergency response teams for my city, or volunteer at a free clinic.

If you're sick of memorizing and dealing with pharmacy, do something else. Learn a new craft, a new skill. Learn a language, go play a sport, join a intramural team. Whatever it is, there's a lot of options than Prozac.
 
Go out and date someone that isn't in pharmacy school?

Really, none of us are doing anything amazing in the grand scheme of the universe. We are born...we might spend 80 or so years doing arbitrary things...then we die...and the vast majority of us are forgotten about within 3 or 4 generations as if we never existed. It is what it is. Don't let it get you down. Nobody's life has intrinsic meaning. Not me, you, Bill Gates, Rupaul...nobody. Thinking about the absurd, pointless nature of life (even if you give your life meaning on your own...it's still kinda meaningless...) used to make me depressed. Now it just cracks me up because of how much meaning we think each of our lives should have in the vast pool of inescapable meaningless. **** it. Embrace the meaningless. Go out, have fun, experience the world.

I'm not sure that helps...but it's late and I'm suffering a bit of the 'ol insomnia, so you get a rambling paragraph or two of pontification.
 
steveysmith54 said:
So i finished p1... got very mediocre grades, mostly b's.
I became very unmotivated in the middle of p1 as i was faced with situation in my life i never experienced before... I come from a kind of a poor family. So, in HS i really wanted to get into college. In undergrad i really wanted to get into pharmd program. Now, i felt like what's my next goal. I mean now it felt like all is left is memorizes all this drug info. everyday seemed like it was the same. it was almost like i had nothing to strive for. Retail jobs just seemed like whatever to me, hectic, repetitive, occasionally rewarding. just a way to give myself a comfortable life. Hospital and residency are def not for me.

The girls in my pharmacy schools are older than me and majority are not single. So i stayed single.

Now, i am home going out with my friends like every other day and feel like i am not accomplishing anyting.

Any advice other than prozac? 🙂
Click to expand...

That sounds like what happens when you're broke as a joke
 
steveysmith54 said:
no, if i was poor i'd be motivated... i am comfortable now for a student, which contributed to my loss of motivation.

thnx for the advice guys
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Ok you and Pianopooh are single with the same problems, seems like a match made in heaven. LOL🙄
 
tootoo30 said:
Ok you and Pianopooh are single with the same problems, seems like a match made in heaven. LOL🙄
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I don't think I meet her needs. I am caucasian. Unless, i learn her language, which someone in this thread recommended me to try. 🙂
 
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Aww...this is just too cute. Now you can learn a language (pianopooh's language) and then hook up...LOL...you have not 1, but 2 goals to achieve 😛

On a more serious note, when I was a P1, I was also very depressed. Life was just so meaningless and I was just tired of everything. There are days you just feel like not doing anything, but just know that it won't stay that way forever. Start each day with a positive attitude, each day is a new beginning.
 
Stevey, don't worry. Everything's sweet and dandy right now. You've got nothing to complain about. I also completed my P1 year this month. Trust me...we will have every reason to be depressed when we graduate in 2012. At that point, we will be making a garbage salary relative to the years of schooling we're putting in and will have thousands in student loans to pay off on a low 65 k salary. Oh and you will have to bust your behind to get a job too because of the saturation of pharmacists. So, let's both just try and enjoy our next 3 years before we start eating potatoes and green beans the rest of our lives. Seriously, pharmacy's going down.
 
lol...i think you just made the situation worse for him
 
it's ridiculous that pharmacy is going down.. Before going to pharmacy school, I thought I could quit bedside nursing and be happy studying/socializing/work in pharmacy during school. Now I am working my a** off and stay in nursing to minimize the loan to prepare for the " just-in-case" job situations after graduation. Ironically, nursing now turned out to be my fall-back. life sucks...🙂
 
Your first year is probably your best year. It goes down hill from there.
 
DoctorRx1986 said:
Stevey, don't worry. Everything's sweet and dandy right now. You've got nothing to complain about. I also completed my P1 year this month. Trust me...we will have every reason to be depressed when we graduate in 2012. At that point, we will be making a garbage salary relative to the years of schooling we're putting in and will have thousands in student loans to pay off on a low 65 k salary. Oh and you will have to bust your behind to get a job too because of the saturation of pharmacists. So, let's both just try and enjoy our next 3 years before we start eating potatoes and green beans the rest of our lives. Seriously, pharmacy's going down.
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You've only got one year in. I would cut my losses and quit now if I believed the above assertions.
 
Priapism321 said:
You've only got one year in. I would cut my losses and quit now if I believed the above assertions.
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Priapism, what DO you believe? It's very easy to feel nice and giddy when you're already a PharmD graduate in 2009 and will likely have great job offers that will likely pay you $100 k minimum, thereby enabling you to pay off your debt comfortably. You're not in my situation as a new P2 and the rest of us. Your "era" as pharmacy student and graduate and reality is quite different from relatively new students such as myself and others. Regardless, tell me what you do believe if you don't believe my assertions.
 
DoctorRx1986 said:
Priapism, what DO you believe? It's very easy to feel nice and giddy when you're already a PharmD graduate in 2009 and will likely have great job offers that will likely pay you $100 k minimum, thereby enabling you to pay off your debt comfortably. You're not in my situation as a new P2 and the rest of us. Your "era" as pharmacy student and graduate and reality is quite different from relatively new students such as myself and others. Regardless, tell me what you do believe if you don't believe my assertions.
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I just want to know why someone would bother pressing forward if they believed their life and career were destined for the ****ter? I felt comfortable enough with the profession and its future to take a $60,000 dollar pay cut for two years after I graduated to work 60 - 90 hours a week as a slave....errrr, trainee.
 
steveysmith54 said:
So i finished p1... got very mediocre grades, mostly b's.
I became very unmotivated in the middle of p1 as i was faced with situation in my life i never experienced before... I come from a kind of a poor family. So, in HS i really wanted to get into college. In undergrad i really wanted to get into pharmd program. Now, i felt like what's my next goal. I mean now it felt like all is left is memorizes all this drug info. everyday seemed like it was the same. it was almost like i had nothing to strive for. Retail jobs just seemed like whatever to me, hectic, repetitive, occasionally rewarding. just a way to give myself a comfortable life. Hospital and residency are def not for me.

The girls in my pharmacy schools are older than me and majority are not single. So i stayed single.

Now, i am home going out with my friends like every other day and feel like i am not accomplishing anyting.

Any advice other than prozac? 🙂
Click to expand...

Get a dog, pick up a hobby, learn a language, go to the strip club. That should fill up your time, make some new stories to share with your friends that you hang out with day in and day out, and if your lucky a date or two.
 
I'm not doing that well in grades either and I'm not depressed. I still feel like I learned A LOT.

Girls wise, don't commit pharmacest. I'm dating someone not in my pharmacy school. And really, you don't want to date someone in the same class, or same school because its a small community, and if things go sour, everyone will find out.
 
oh great, is P1 really that depressing?

This is how I handle depression. I've gone through some depression myself being that I'm a 4th re-applicant to pharmacy school. First, I try to answer this question. What is the purpose of life? Why the hell are we here on earth, going to school, working, having a family, and eventually dying. Why are we going to pharmacy school? Obviously, we going to pharmacy school to pursue a career as legalized drug dealers so that we can support our family and live a happy decent life. Life is short, man. After 80 years, you will be dead and all your pharmacy school education will be worthless. The way I try to motivate myself in school is to change my way of thinking. Learning is a life-long process. You can never stop learning in school as well as your personal life. If you think of it as this way, school will not be depressing. If you think of school as something you have to do to become a pharmacist and make lots of money, you will be depressed. Think of each day in class as an adventure. You have to have a goal pertaining to your professional and also personal life. You can't also focus too much on books. Like the previous poster said, you have to have a hobby. Get a pet bird or dog. Go to a strip club? Have you join a pharmacy society or interprofessional society? That is a great way to meet other students from other professions such as nursing. Wink wink. Believe me, you don't want to date someone in class that you will be seeing everyday. It just doesn't work out in the long run. The more you socialize or open yourself to the various opportunities out there, the better chances you have of meeting the person of your dreams.
So remember, change your way of thinking about why you are going to school and open yourself to social events in school. If go about school thinking oh man you have to memorize all these names and you can't meet anyone of your type in class, you will end up miserable.
 
DoctorRx1986 said:
Priapism, what DO you believe? It's very easy to feel nice and giddy when you're already a PharmD graduate in 2009 and will likely have great job offers that will likely pay you $100 k minimum, thereby enabling you to pay off your debt comfortably. You're not in my situation as a new P2 and the rest of us. Your "era" as pharmacy student and graduate and reality is quite different from relatively new students such as myself and others. Regardless, tell me what you do believe if you don't believe my assertions.
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Sheesh. Seriously, quit pharmacy. Quit it now and go be a lawyer or something. If you really hate what you do now, before you even start doing it, you'll really hate it when you are in the real world.

I don't know where you get all this stuff about not making any money when you graduate. My husband and I just finished/are finishing our PhD training. We barely made $50,000 together in grad school, my husband still has student loans from undergrad, he won't be making much at all as a post-doc ($40,000 or so in Seattle), and I'm about to start pharmacy school and will have lots of loans when I finish. I know the salary will be decent when I finish (there's no way the average for a first year pharmacist will drop from close to $100,000 to $65,000 in four years), and we'll certainly make more than we do now. I probably won't be driving a fancy car when I graduate, but I'll have what I need for the necessities and some fun stuff.

Doing something you love and having enough money for the necessities is enough. It works for my family and our friends with PhDs (who don't make a lot, considering their education level)!
 
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To the OP, sounds like you should consider talking to a counselor. They can help you deal with some of the depression, and most of the time, no drugs needed!

I'd also consider looking into if pharmacy is really for you. I worked hard through high school to get into college. I then worked hard in college to get into grad school. And as soon as I got into the molecular biology program, I realized research was not for me. I hated it almost always and had no motivation. I had many of the same feelings you described above. I couldn't motivate myself, and in grad school, it's really bad to do that, as almost all of your education is self-motivated. I spent several years looking into all sorts of careers, and finally I decided to switch into pharmacy. And I have that drive again and am excited about my future career.

Now if I could only get the drive to finish writing my thesis for my grad program...

One caveat to what I said above: I know lots of grad students, and even the ones that are destined to become great researchers had times during school where they thought about dropping out. School's tough, especially grad/prof school, and difficulties in your life can make it even tougher. Why you're in pharmacy could be a good thing to talk with a counselor. They might help you figure out what direction to take.
 
OP needs to kill self.

Im dying to start my P1, just dying to start retail and earn some cash and leave my parents' basement.

OP, learn how to get better at picking up women. There are books available on the internet and free if you know where to look for them. My problem isnt being able to pick up women....it's bringing them home to my parents' basement.
 
FarscapeGirl said:
pharmacist will drop from close to $100,000 to $65,000 in four years
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree that it won't drop that much. But $100,000 in the next 4-5 years may cost $30,000-$40,000 less than the current value. The "frozen" salary is considered the drop in salary. It's scary enough to think that our salary may be frozen for the next decade.

They won't increase the salary to keep up with other medical profession. NP used to earn $60,000, now, some of them earn up to $85,000. It's possible that our future salary would be less or the same as NP/PA/DPT.
 
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RNtoPharmD said:
Yes, I agree that it won't drop that much. But $100,000 in the next 4-5 years may cost $30,000-$40,000 less than the current value. The "frozen" salary is considered the drop in salary. It's scary enough to think that our salary may be frozen for the next decade.
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Dude, do you know how much inflation you just described.


As for the OP...I'm just bored now. P-1 was a snoozefest, kinda wish I went to a 3-yr school, but then again I'd probably complain about that too.
 
confettiflyer said:
Dude, do you know how much inflation you just described.


As for the OP...I'm just bored now. P-1 was a snoozefest, kinda wish I went to a 3-yr school, but then again I'd probably complain about that too.
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Exactly!

I'm still on the side that believes that we should be putting anxiolytics in the SDN water fountain...
 
PharmDstudent said:
Exactly!

I'm still on the side that believes that we should be putting anxiolytics in the SDN water fountain...
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I'm with you on that one. People here have a tendency to be wayy too uptight. At least we have some pranksters and "tell it like it is" people to even them out. you know who you are
 
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