DennisReynolds
Full Member
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2019
- Messages
- 140
- Reaction score
- 446
You know what it was when you opened this thread. I had warned you and all of your fellow SDNers that once I match and once I feel secure enough to talk my trash and spill the tea about medical school, the medical students I have come across, and my journey to this point, that this thread would be made. I know what you’re thinking… “Great…. Here we go again… Dennis is going to just go off on a cursing frenzy and do one-liners like he used to and just be absolutely vulgur and hopefully the mods will remove his account.” But you gotta understand one thing… that’s right… I’m talking to you… the cutie pie who is reading this with a smile on your face… people can change… and sometimes they change for the better. Now let’s get started.
First off, THANK GOD. THANK JESUS. THANK ALLAH. THANK BUDDHA. And if you don’t believe in any of those, THANK TOM CRUISE. I have matched.
SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE thought I have the chops to become a resident and a PHYSICIAN.
I am SO thankful I am SO grateful. I did fall down my list a couple spots, and didn’t match at my home program here in an “underserved” area which has trouble retaining physicians. I’M FROM THE AREA but still was done super dirty by the program directors who maybe figured I belong elsewhere. After drinking some nice champagne and consuming the finest cannabis that I had been saving for a special occasion, I am basking in the possibility of starting over at a new place, with new people and new experiences. My program I matched to will also be starting a few new fellowships that I am very interested in. So things are looking up.
Will half of my paycheck be going to living costs? Of course. But oh well. The ocean views that I will briefly get to see as I go into the hospital at 5:00 AM on inpatient months will be worth it.
Now… let’s get down to what you are here for.
What are some things I’ve learned and what are some gems I can drop for you cutie pies reading this?
Let’s get to it.
First off. Medical students (an overwhelming majority.. NOT EVERY... BUT MANY… ESPECIALLY in MY CLASS) are SOME OF THE MOST GRIMEY, SOME OF THE MOST SLIMEY, SOME OF THE MOST SNAKEISH jerks there are. However, you know the solution to this? AVOID THEM. AVOID THE JERKS IN YOUR CLASS. Avoid the meanies that have nothing but negative things to say. Avoid the people who ALWAYS have to be right and prove their point to feed their egos and feed their low self-esteem. I realized that many of these students absolutely LOVE to see you struggle. They LOVE to see other students feel inferior and “dumb”. How did I deal with them? Be NICE. I swear. BE the SWEETEST, KINDEST, GOODY TWO SHOES you can. Give nothing but constructive comments to everybody (no matter how fake it may seem). Always make sure you let them know how SMART and how GRATEFUL you personally are for THEIR knowledge. I swear it works every time.
Eventually, this positivity will start to attract others in the class who were scared or hesitant just due to the environment. Your reputation will get around. I got to know classmates who were collegiate athletes, who were professors in different renowned universities, who were farmers, and some that were in other health professions who shared the same view about life and respect that I did.
Avoid the kiddos whose mommy and daddy were doctors and went to private universities and whose definition of failure was getting a B in class or God Forbid got the wrong color on their Mercedes Benz that was gifted for their birthday. The entitlement that I witnessed in school amongst future doctors was absolutely off-putting and made me not want to mess with my class AT ALL. But the real ones always came out of the woodwork and we stuck together.
The point is…. GIVE RESPECT no matter where you are and no matter who it is. Always have a smile on your face. Say “thank you”, say “good morning”. Tell people that they will do great things! But also… learn when to shut up. Learn how to read a room and address people’s energy in a respective way. This is something you can’t just read in a book.
I learned this by being fortunate enough to have friends and family that experienced life in different situations. I’ve physically gone to pick up family and friends from jail to bail them out. I’ve been in rooms with people who were on house arrest, tattoos on the neck and faces, that weren’t supposed to be there, facing felonies and doing things with certain substances that they shouldn’t be messing with having conversations about life, health, family, and talking about street topics that I have no business knowing. I’ve also been in rooms with people who are educated and career driven at the top of their field in different areas such as business, real estate, teaching, medicine, etc. and would be able to hold a conversation about something relative to their field and come out knowing something I didn’t. This is what life is about. It’s about being able to walk amongst people in many different situations while being able to be yourself and have open eyes and open ears. Don’t focus on the messenger, focus on the message.
When it comes to my medical school and the admin…you have to understand one thing. Keep the school AT A DISTANCE. As long as they get their tuition, your job is to use what they give you to get to the next level. You will use their connections and their contracts with hospitals and lecture material to learn what you need to learn. TALK TO YOUR PRECEPTOR first. Talk to your resident first. DON’T LET THE SCHOOL KNOW ANYTHING and deal with this directly with your preceptor or team. You can make up the hours when and if you need to later. There is no reward for being honest to your school. They are a business. I learned this lesson the hard way when my preceptor legitimately TOLD ME “Don’t worry about telling your school about taking this Friday off… you need to study for your shelf and I will only be here for couple hours in the morning”. I made the stupid mistake of letting my school know I will be missing the day on my preceptor’s recommendations and guess who got to do 3 journal reviews and type up a paper on meningitis? Lessons learned the hard way.
I’ma leave it off there for now. I got a nice little dinner date with taco bell but I guess I’m here to answer any questions if you guys have any. I'm down to answer any questions as I best see fit about matching and rotations and all that jazz.
But let's just say I'M SO GLAD TO BE DONE. UGHHH.
TLDR:
***also, I wanted to shoutout a few special people that helped me on my journey that I was able to meet via SDN.
This includes @Ibn Alnafis MD @Goro and the infamous @MedPR (he's been gone from this site for a while but shoutout to the OG.)
I have many more folks to thank but my account has been disabled so many times that I've lost track of those folks who deserve a genuine thank you.
Also... I still have a huge crush on one of the moderators who is a cougar and a surgeon. So if you're reading this... I'm shooting my shot. ***
First off, THANK GOD. THANK JESUS. THANK ALLAH. THANK BUDDHA. And if you don’t believe in any of those, THANK TOM CRUISE. I have matched.
SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE thought I have the chops to become a resident and a PHYSICIAN.
I am SO thankful I am SO grateful. I did fall down my list a couple spots, and didn’t match at my home program here in an “underserved” area which has trouble retaining physicians. I’M FROM THE AREA but still was done super dirty by the program directors who maybe figured I belong elsewhere. After drinking some nice champagne and consuming the finest cannabis that I had been saving for a special occasion, I am basking in the possibility of starting over at a new place, with new people and new experiences. My program I matched to will also be starting a few new fellowships that I am very interested in. So things are looking up.
Will half of my paycheck be going to living costs? Of course. But oh well. The ocean views that I will briefly get to see as I go into the hospital at 5:00 AM on inpatient months will be worth it.
Now… let’s get down to what you are here for.
What are some things I’ve learned and what are some gems I can drop for you cutie pies reading this?
Let’s get to it.
First off. Medical students (an overwhelming majority.. NOT EVERY... BUT MANY… ESPECIALLY in MY CLASS) are SOME OF THE MOST GRIMEY, SOME OF THE MOST SLIMEY, SOME OF THE MOST SNAKEISH jerks there are. However, you know the solution to this? AVOID THEM. AVOID THE JERKS IN YOUR CLASS. Avoid the meanies that have nothing but negative things to say. Avoid the people who ALWAYS have to be right and prove their point to feed their egos and feed their low self-esteem. I realized that many of these students absolutely LOVE to see you struggle. They LOVE to see other students feel inferior and “dumb”. How did I deal with them? Be NICE. I swear. BE the SWEETEST, KINDEST, GOODY TWO SHOES you can. Give nothing but constructive comments to everybody (no matter how fake it may seem). Always make sure you let them know how SMART and how GRATEFUL you personally are for THEIR knowledge. I swear it works every time.
Eventually, this positivity will start to attract others in the class who were scared or hesitant just due to the environment. Your reputation will get around. I got to know classmates who were collegiate athletes, who were professors in different renowned universities, who were farmers, and some that were in other health professions who shared the same view about life and respect that I did.
Avoid the kiddos whose mommy and daddy were doctors and went to private universities and whose definition of failure was getting a B in class or God Forbid got the wrong color on their Mercedes Benz that was gifted for their birthday. The entitlement that I witnessed in school amongst future doctors was absolutely off-putting and made me not want to mess with my class AT ALL. But the real ones always came out of the woodwork and we stuck together.
The point is…. GIVE RESPECT no matter where you are and no matter who it is. Always have a smile on your face. Say “thank you”, say “good morning”. Tell people that they will do great things! But also… learn when to shut up. Learn how to read a room and address people’s energy in a respective way. This is something you can’t just read in a book.
I learned this by being fortunate enough to have friends and family that experienced life in different situations. I’ve physically gone to pick up family and friends from jail to bail them out. I’ve been in rooms with people who were on house arrest, tattoos on the neck and faces, that weren’t supposed to be there, facing felonies and doing things with certain substances that they shouldn’t be messing with having conversations about life, health, family, and talking about street topics that I have no business knowing. I’ve also been in rooms with people who are educated and career driven at the top of their field in different areas such as business, real estate, teaching, medicine, etc. and would be able to hold a conversation about something relative to their field and come out knowing something I didn’t. This is what life is about. It’s about being able to walk amongst people in many different situations while being able to be yourself and have open eyes and open ears. Don’t focus on the messenger, focus on the message.
When it comes to my medical school and the admin…you have to understand one thing. Keep the school AT A DISTANCE. As long as they get their tuition, your job is to use what they give you to get to the next level. You will use their connections and their contracts with hospitals and lecture material to learn what you need to learn. TALK TO YOUR PRECEPTOR first. Talk to your resident first. DON’T LET THE SCHOOL KNOW ANYTHING and deal with this directly with your preceptor or team. You can make up the hours when and if you need to later. There is no reward for being honest to your school. They are a business. I learned this lesson the hard way when my preceptor legitimately TOLD ME “Don’t worry about telling your school about taking this Friday off… you need to study for your shelf and I will only be here for couple hours in the morning”. I made the stupid mistake of letting my school know I will be missing the day on my preceptor’s recommendations and guess who got to do 3 journal reviews and type up a paper on meningitis? Lessons learned the hard way.
I’ma leave it off there for now. I got a nice little dinner date with taco bell but I guess I’m here to answer any questions if you guys have any. I'm down to answer any questions as I best see fit about matching and rotations and all that jazz.
But let's just say I'M SO GLAD TO BE DONE. UGHHH.
TLDR:
- People, especially entitled and bratty med students, can be mean. Don’t be mean. Be kind. It matters a lot more than you think.
- The school is a business. They are invested in your success as much as you are. They won’t go out of their way to help you and you shouldn’t expect it. Keep it a business and professional relationship. Do your time. Don’t raise any eyebrows. Keep it moving.
- I'm here to answer any questions about stuff the best way I can. Let's talk about life, let's talk about stress, let's talk about love, food, etc. I'm here for you guys.
- WASH UR HANDS YOU DIRTBAGS.
***also, I wanted to shoutout a few special people that helped me on my journey that I was able to meet via SDN.
This includes @Ibn Alnafis MD @Goro and the infamous @MedPR (he's been gone from this site for a while but shoutout to the OG.)
I have many more folks to thank but my account has been disabled so many times that I've lost track of those folks who deserve a genuine thank you.
Also... I still have a huge crush on one of the moderators who is a cougar and a surgeon. So if you're reading this... I'm shooting my shot. ***
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