Here is my unique, boring, and titilating story about my drive to become an osteopathic physician:
When I was 8 years old, I had my first major surgery on my upper right humerus. This was one of 6 operations I would have before I was 17 years old. I have always been in and out of the medical field and scared as hell about it. Picture an 8-year old boy going into surgery with no idea of what is going on and what could happen. I started researching medicine before I was 10 and have wanted to be a doctor since then. I became great friends with my anesthesiologist and he stalled out every fear I had. He was kind of like my mentor and, as I grew older and more doubtful about my qualities in becoming a doctor, he crushed those doubts and gave me the confidence that I too could be a great physician. I worked my butt off in high school and college, doing everything I could do to increase my chances at getting into med school.
All of my friends in college, that I had known most of my life, gave me tons of encouragement through the years. They hardly knew anything about becoming a doctor and all it takes, as they are mostly business majors. All of the nights they were out having fun, getting drunk, I was in the house studying my ass off or traveling somewhere in the state to shadow a doctor or do some type of volunteer work. They knew that one of their friends would one day be doing something that they never thought of doing and would be great at it. This "pressure" from my friends, and all of my family members, to succeed helped me to get where I am today.
During my sophomore year in college here at the University of Wyoming, I became great friends with my next door neighbor in the dorms the previous year. He was a premed student as well. The following year he was accepted into the WWAMI program, a program put on by the University of Washington's med school that allows WY residents to attend their first year of med school here in Wyoming. He has always helped me out with anything med school related that I needed to know, and informed me of osteopathic medicine and all it has to offer. I had never even considered OM before that, and he told me he wished he had gone into it. I did about everything one could do to learn about osteopathic medicine and it completely facinated me. Everything I want to do in my life, I could do through OM. We started researching DO schools together and found a few that seemed great. I applied fall 2003, interviewed winter 2004, and got my acceptance in March of 2004.
LECOM - Bradenton Class of 2008 baby!