Why I am really hating medical school...

[quideam]

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So today I was talking with two friends of mine (also MS-Is), as they were discussing the 'interesting' information that was being covered in Genetics lecture this week. Personally, I hated this semester - I hate biochem, I hate genetics, I hate... well, memorization of millions of highly irrelevant facts. I guess what made me lose it a bit today is listening to their conversation - and realizing that they actually ENJOY this garbage. It made me wonder (for the millionth time, but more seriously now) whether or not I even belong here. Do I really want to be a doctor? I went into medicine not because I like basic science (I have a vague tolerance for it on good days), but because I really enjoyed being an EMT and want to do emergency medicine. Shadowing in the ER still makes me really happy, and I think that I would like doing what they're doing... but all of this crap that comes before is just, well, depressing.

The other thing that bothers me - and this perhaps more than the first - is that I feel like the whole world is passing me by. I read the news every day, and it seems like everything is in turmoil - wars, corruption, etc., is everywhere - and what am I doing about it? I'm memorizing minutia in the library's basement. It makes me really frustrated to feel that life, in all of its insanity, is happening, and i'm just sitting around doing irrelevant nonsense instead of being involved somehow.

Does anyone else feel this way? I don't know, maybe the biochem is just getting to me... but I can't help feeling left out from what's going on in the world, and it's slowly driving me nuts!!

Quid

 

[Rendar5]

haha, don't sweat it too much. remember that there are a lot of bio majors who go into med school and forget that there is a lot more exciting stuff to come in the clinical stuff. biochem and genetics is what they know, and suddenly, they learna couple of cool facts that they weren't aware of, or suddenly realize something they learned in college actually has some real life importance.

I personally throw my hands up at genetics too (and 70-80% of biochem). don't worry about the real raw bench science aspects of medicine too much since there is plenty of clinical stuff and messy stuff to go along with it.

(I'm also set on EM, but I was a chem major and do occasionally get excited with bench science, but rarely since I was a lab tech and have since grown to hate bench science).

 

[Paws]

Quid, you are one of my favorite posters on this forum. Here you are at Cornell and I am sure the work load is crushing. A friend of mine there said it was a big adjustment to get used to. I know that when I have been swamped under for weeks and have had no fun at all, that I sound just like you. 🙂

Well, I probably get crabbier and my dark, pessimistic side comes out but you know what I mean.

I think there is a weird dissociative thing that happens to a person who sits in the basement of the med school library, or even *cough,cough*at her own kitchen table, studying all day. There must be a sensory component where the world slips away and then it's just you and the krebs cycle, and a bunch of amino acids, or cranial nerves and anterior compartments of the leg or whatever.

ER work is awesome and if that's what you love - keep your focus on that. The academic stuff is a means to an end, I keep telling myself. Just another hoop to go through.

When you are done for the break, go and kick butt doing whatever you want to do. But enjoy yourself and get back to the, 'oh, yeah, this is why I am here feeling.'

👍

 

[leorl]

Awww quidem, don't worry about it. You just don't take interest in it, which is ok. It will be a bear to get through but once you hit your clinical years, that's when you'll start really liking medicine. I'm one of those nerds who enjoys all the subjects (I hate studying, but I actually find all the subjects interesting) and even I was questioning my decision to go into medicine. But the minute you step foot in that hospital, and start learning more interesting/gross stuff (take you pic. Like path and micro) and see the previous info. in a clinical setting, you'll know you made the right choice.

 

[automaton]

this is something a lot of humanities majors go through. if i remember correctly you were a philosophy major so i can understand your feeling. don't worry about the people who think genetics is interesting - they are dorks and ******s. think of them as people who love the taste of 40oz malt liquor. the normal people - and there are some (if not a lot) out there, just talk to people and you'll slowly find out - hate this crap and can't wait for it to be over. you're not alone.

memorization sucks but i'm sure you didn't go into medicine thinking you'd get away with not memorizing stuff. as a first year you still have a lot of misery to go through and it will be tough sometimes. but the first two years are not like what medicine is like. if you like being in the ER, that's a good sign. liking genetics or biochem is neither necessary nor sufficient for being a happy doctor. personally i think if you really like first year you are psychotic and cannot be trusted but that's just my opinion.

concerning current events and all that crap: once you do without it for a while you realize how irrelevant it is to your life and you might actually welcome loosening the chains of the inane from your life. believe it or not a happy life can be achieved without knowing who the hell scott peterson is or which pop star got the most grammy nominations, or which Lounge user has the most self-aggrandizing threads. a lot of stuff out there in the real world is ******ed and you're probably not missing much. just think of the Lounge for example, and this is with a presumably above average intelligence group. the stuff you care about, like family and friends you will have less time for, but if you care enough you will still be able to make enough time for them.

 

[DW]

What's up Quideam

As a fellow Cornellian, just hang in there. The first semester can get very boring, but next semester you get into the real meat and potatoes with Human Structure and Function. The faculty for the most part (especially for Anatomy Physiology, and Histology) are flat out amazing. Just maximize your free time before the good stuff starts in january. HSF is a lot more work that Molecules, Genes, and Bull***t, whatever they're calling in these days, but trust me its a 1000 times more interesting 🙂

and just think, no more biochem until you have to quickly review all that BS before the boards, thats a light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[phoenixsupra]

Quid, it DOES get more interesting but you'll definately have to come to terms with the pointless binge and purge memorization fest. That NEVER stops. Humanities majors definately have a harder time with this. In general were trained to think and not just to perform. Theres enough in medschool to drag any thinking person down. If you want to stay afloat you need to be VERY selective with your attention. Medschool is bootcamp...survive it. Sure, you can influence others. But there's only one person in medicine that you can really change. You're gonna be fine. Hang in there. 🙂

 

[Doc Ivy]

I know it doesn't help you now, but phoenix is right. Second year is sooo much better than first, more clinical, more interesting, less like undergrad. The work is still overwhelming but you start to see the relevance of it all. Good luck and happy hoildays.

p.s. as for life passing you by, I used to feel that way. Med school is such that you could study 24/7 -- there is just that much material. So cut yourself a break. You can be be hardcore 5-6 days a week and still take a day or two off to chill, watch tv, hang with friends, date etc...

 

[GoodMonkey]

i guess i really also want to stress that i find having a balance in my life vital to not going crazy. i NEED to have things outside of medical school to do or think about. i'm not shooting for all honors, just for doing my best without going nuts. for me, that means taking some of that extra time or some of my free time to do things that i enjoy that have nothing to do with medical school. i sing with a choir and play some sports. when i'm really stressed, i take an hour just to sit down at my piano and think about nothing but music. i turn to my non-medschool friends for a dose of reality - that which tells me it's my job and not my life and yes, i can be successful thinking of it that way. for me, personally, it's not worth it to kill myself over medical school, or over getting honors, or over the perfect board score. (never wanted to be a dermatologist or neurosurgeon anyway 😉 ) ... i'll do the best i can do while still maintaining some semblance of a normal life. i realize this will be less than feasible during my 3rd year and probably most times in residency, but sometimes it's really those little moments that help me maintain my tenuous grip on sanity. 🙂

good luck 🙂

EDIT - other posters are right in their assertion that it gets better. this year's material, while more in-depth at times, and more difficult at times, has *definitely* been much more interesting and relevant. (i'm an m2)

 

[WRXwing]

I agree with what everyone has said, and would like to add one little thing...

Don't sweat the people who seemingly love what they're learning. Some of them may indeed be bio majors who get off on this stuff, but there are also some who fake it, especially in first year. Getting into med school is such a huge process for some people that when they enter, they feel they are entering this mystical, magical hallowed place and have to change their whole demeanor to one of absolute awe and reverence of everything they do. Problem is, they don't really turn that attitude off for fear of looking like someone who doesn't belong. This is only some people, mind you, but I do argue that they exist.

Honestly, do you think EVERYONE loved everything this much when they were in college? That they suddenly entered medicine, the field they truly wanted to go into, so suddenly everything is wonderful?

People's attitudes change as they go through med school. By fourth year, most students know what stuff they liked and can come to terms with the fact that certain areas bore them silly and/or they personally find them useless to medicine. Then again, some people do still claim to love EVERYTHING, EVERY LITTLE GOSHDARN THING, IT'S SO AMAZING!

Those people are fake.

Genetics was boring as hell for me. I loved biochem. I hated anatomy. Loved physio, HATEHATEHATED histo. Whatever. There's a certain amount of basic knowledge that needs to be squeezed out of all of these courses, and you do need it, but you certainly don't have to like all of it.

Have fun. There's no reason this can't be like college, except classes are a lot harder and you have to study a lot more. Honestly, what else is different?

Don't sacrifice your life for med school. Fit med school into your life.

And stay in school. And DARE to keep kids off of drugs. And only you can prevent forest fires. And give a hoot, don't pollute.

Okay, I'm going to go do qbank questions...

 

[LoneCoyote]

Believe me, you aren't the only one out there who feels this way and I have had people say over and over that it gets better after you get out of 1st year. I too was feeling very disconnected from the world this quarter, which was weird given that I had spent the last year working in government. I now just take like 10 minutes or so to glance over the headlines at a news site everyday, and maybe go and read some op-eds. I was a history major in my past life and feel like that reading/writing part of my brain is just dead with all the memorization. So that has helped me a bit, as has just staying in daily contact with friends and family who are not in med school. Also, if you get involved with some more politically/activist oriented campus groups, you can probably meet people who are interested in talking about current events. And as someone else mentioned, in a way I have found it kind of nice to disconnect a bit when I do not want to think about all that is going on in the world. I think it will get better... and now I must return to anatomy.

 

[johnny_blaze]

This is quite interesting. For some reason I have never really had any REAL problems with the first 2 years of med school. I guess its because I have a high interest for the basic medical sciences… aside for genetics and biochem, I hate them as well 😡 . My main point is that I was exposed to clinical medicine at the beginning of my second year (I did part time rotations in med and surgery for the entire year) and learned the medical sciences as well. We were taught theory rather than just memorizing loads of names (ie. Drug types rather than individual names…. Which we picked up on the wards anyway!) I can see how countless hours learning loads and loads of info could eventually get to you!

Quid, I guess a good way of looking at it is if you like what you see in the ER you’re on the right track by being in med school. All the docs you shadow went through the EXACT SAME thing you’re going through and are good doctors because they forced themselves through it. I reckon you gotta have a pretty good understanding of medical science to make a good ER doc.

Btw… there are some really cool things to look forward too (eg. Delivering a baby.. nothing in the world can compare to this 🙂 … in my opinion anyway)

 

[automaton]

let me be a voice of dissent here and perhaps you'll maintain some sanity during second year. for some people who hate first year, second year is "more" interesting. that doesn't mean it is actually "interesting", it's relative to the absolute bore of first year. however, in case you find yourself next year with the same questions, finding yourself as bored as ever, i'll just say that in my case, second year is not a bit better than first year, aside from all that f*cking anatomy and dissecting and scrub wearing bullsh*t that i don't have to worry about anymore. at least during first year you learn physiology. second year is all about bugs and drugs. it's like taking all the wonderful concepts of physiology and smothering it an endless list of bacterial/viral/fungal/parasitic feces and finishing it off with a golden stream of a million drugs each with its hefty list of side effects. second year is crap, i don't care what anyone says. clinically more relevant? who the hell cares, it's still memorization, and for former philosophy students like you and me, there's nothing more interesting about memorization no matter what the subject matter is.

ps: don't ever think that you're dumber than someone just because they can memorize better than you.

 

[ddmo]

I read this post earlier (during a study break... big exam tomorrow) and it got me thinking.

I really like pizza. However, if someone started force-feeding me 10 larges a day, I am pretty damn sure that I would begin to absolutely loathe pizza.

And that's just about all there is to med school..

 

[ermonty]

at least during first year you learn physiology. second year is all about bugs and drugs. it's like taking all the wonderful concepts of physiology and smothering it an endless list of bacterial/viral/fungal/parasitic feces and finishing it off with a golden stream of a million drugs each with its hefty list of side effects.

ps: don't ever think that you're dumber than someone just because they can memorize better than you.

Great Post. I loved first year Phys and even some biochemistry. But second year is all Bugs and Drugs. I HATE INFECTIOUS DISEASE! My favorite subjects are Renal/Cardiac/Pulmonary Phys/PathoPhys, and Meds pertaining to those systems in critical care. Guess what my interest is?
(Anesthesiology)

 

[ermonty]

I read this post earlier (during a study break... big exam tomorrow) and it got me thinking.

I really like pizza. However, if someone started force-feeding me 10 larges a day, I am pretty damn sure that I would begin to absolutely loathe pizza.

And that's just about all there is to med school..

Soooo true. I liked all subjects pertaining to medicine in anyway in undergrad (biochem). 3 semesters of medschool later - information overload - and now 'Momma, I dont want no more Pizza!' Ever here a kid say that? Hehe

To the Origional Poster: With your background and interests I think you are gonna make a great EM doc. We need people with passion for the field (former EMTs/ED nurses, etc.) to go into EM and be on the front lines. So stay the course - suck it up, get through your classes, pass your boards, survive your rotations, and then its on to that EM residency and future practice. Best of luck to you!

 

[coolness]

2 classes I hate...Micro (when it comes to bacteria & viruses, just pure memorization) and anatomy (mostly memorization)

newflash for incoming students - medical school is mostly memorization, so if you don't have a relatively good memory, you're going to struggle

It sucks because I know that many of these people in class are not smarter than me, but they're getting better grades because they can memorize better (eg look at 100 Powerpoint slides one time and remember all the details, while i have to look at them 2-3 times)

 

[Hoya11]

2 classes I hate...Micro (when it comes to bacteria & viruses, just pure memorization) and anatomy (mostly memorization)

newflash for incoming students - medical school is mostly memorization, so if you don't have a relatively good memory, you're going to struggle

It sucks because I know that many of these people in class are not smarter than me, but they're getting better grades because they can memorize better (eg look at 100 Powerpoint slides one time and remember all the details, while i have to look at them 2-3 times)

I hear you, and anatomy and histo are my least favorite also for some reason, but anyway i think you are wrong about why you or people like you might be having a hard time, cuz i was/am having a hard time and I think I found at least a way to improve. I too subscribed to the theory that the other people in my class were just "better test takers" ( which is still partly true), or just were "better memorizers" or something immaterial like that. WHich is totally possible, but for this last test i have just tried being an absolute maniac, studying literally 16-20 hours a day for the few days before the test...something i have NEVER even imagined, believe me. But as I was doing it I noticed that I started to feel more confident in the material, just seeing the BS like 10 times makes me feel comfortable for some reason. Its a mind game you know, that confidence can buy you points. Because a lot of my studying before was just based on "is this gonna be on the test", instead of taking the approach of just CONTSTANTLY studying everything, which is what i really think most of my classmates do anyway. Notice its 4am so excuse the rant but i hope this helps.

 

[automaton]

i think the last thing the OP wants to hear is a solution that involves working like a maniac 20 hrs a day and going over stuff 10 times. 😉

 

[Catalyst]

mssm >>>> cornell. it's so obvious. I mean, I'm not even making it up, it's so simple.

 

[quideam]

Hey guys,

Thanks for replying... I do feel a bit better; I think a lot of my frustration may stem from just being emotionally and mentally burnt out from the semester (it's been rough in a number of ways). Thanks a lot for the suggestions and positive comments!!!!!!! I just had my finals today, so now I can breathe a bit! 🙂

Q

And Catalyst: Cornell >>>>>> MSSM 😛

 

[Sage880]

I read this post earlier (during a study break... big exam tomorrow) and it got me thinking.

I really like pizza. However, if someone started force-feeding me 10 larges a day, I am pretty damn sure that I would begin to absolutely loathe pizza.

And that's just about all there is to med school..

Ha ha, great analogy!

 

[japhy]

quid,

i actually enjoyed the first two years of med school immensely. but it had nothing to do with school, and everything to do with the great friends i made (plus the 50+ days/yr of skiing doesn't hurt either 🙂).

the one thing that made those years great, was any amount of clinical exposure i could get. i was paired up with a mentor and would go to clinic and the o.r. with him. boy, let me tell you, after performing my first rectal exam, it made all those hours in the library worth it, lmao. but seriously, try and get in the e.d. once or twice a month. the info will start making more sense and you will (hopefully) remember whay you are in med school for.

i can sympathize. i am taking a 3 year leave to get a jd. i hate most of the material that we cover. but in the end, i know it will be beneficial for my career choices. the other half of it, is that i don't have the balance i did in med school. i don't get to ski as much and get in the mountains. i can tell a huge difference. best of luck to you

 

[divinemsm]

...patient presents to the ED with fever, lymphadenopathy, elevated neutrophils, and general malaise....which of the following 12 organisms could be cultured from the blood ? welcome to my nightmare. i can not WAIT to get out of the basic science years , and highly suspect that any sort of internal medicine is just NOT for me....ugh...

 

[azzarah]

I am sorry you feel this way. That's exactly how I felt throughout first year. Hang in there...It gets better! Second year is a lot more work but much more interesting. 🙂 Learning about pulmonary htn is much more interesting than counting ATP molecules and memorizing names of transcription factors all day long.

So today I was talking with two friends of mine (also MS-Is), as they were discussing the 'interesting' information that was being covered in Genetics lecture this week. Personally, I hated this semester - I hate biochem, I hate genetics, I hate... well, memorization of millions of highly irrelevant facts. I guess what made me lose it a bit today is listening to their conversation - and realizing that they actually ENJOY this garbage. It made me wonder (for the millionth time, but more seriously now) whether or not I even belong here. Do I really want to be a doctor? I went into medicine not because I like basic science (I have a vague tolerance for it on good days), but because I really enjoyed being an EMT and want to do emergency medicine. Shadowing in the ER still makes me really happy, and I think that I would like doing what they're doing... but all of this crap that comes before is just, well, depressing.

The other thing that bothers me - and this perhaps more than the first - is that I feel like the whole world is passing me by. I read the news every day, and it seems like everything is in turmoil - wars, corruption, etc., is everywhere - and what am I doing about it? I'm memorizing minutia in the library's basement. It makes me really frustrated to feel that life, in all of its insanity, is happening, and i'm just sitting around doing irrelevant nonsense instead of being involved somehow.

Does anyone else feel this way? I don't know, maybe the biochem is just getting to me... but I can't help feeling left out from what's going on in the world, and it's slowly driving me nuts!!

Quid

 

[Elysium]

It is so weird to read your post, quid, because I could have written the damned thing myself! Basically everything you've said I've also said. I thought I was totally alone in my angst, but apparently not. I was also a liberal arts major (film - random, I know) and I f-ing hate med school 98% of the time. Anatomy is the biggest pain in the ass on the planet. I hate the smell, I hate, hate, hate the dissecting (and all the wannabes pretending to be surgeons: "Give me the scapel, STAT!" "Uh, dude, this lady is way past stat", etc.), the friggin' blood vessels (why, oh why jesus are there so many friggin' blood vessels in the abdomen? Do we really need both an SMA and an IMA? Isn't that a bit excessive?), the nerves, the muscles, and everything else. And we haven't even started head and neck yet! Just wait until we saw our cadaver's head in half! Woopee! I plan on having acute cystitis that day. What else blows? Histo? Ridiculous. How in the hell am I supposed to tell if it's the friggin' nervous system or lymph system or any other goddamned system? It's all pink. Couldn't they find another stain? Neuro? Don't even get me started on that intellectual rape festival. Which cranial nerve causes strabismus? Which one causes you to fall down the goddamned stairs? Look, if I need to know that I'll call in a neurology consult. And phys? I thought that could be mildly interesting. But then they snuck in a bunch of formulas and made it an algebra course! What exactly is the import of Henry's Law? That gas diffuses down a concentration gradient? No sh1t sherlock. Breathing good. Not breathing bad. Rinse and repeat. Then there's the 250,879 "doctoring" classes we have to take, like Introduction to Clinical Medicine (family good, violence bad), Physical Diagnosis (shoving otoscope in wrong hole bad), and the piece de la resistance, Public Health (grog good, submarines good, Notovirus bad, pulic health clinics good, Tommy Thompson good, Beri Beri bad). This amounted to 11 tests in 4 days last week! I thought I was literally loosing my mind. I hate every single minute of school because there is absolutely zero secondary thinking involved. Memorize crap. Pick multiple choice answer. Purge mind of crap. Over and over and over. I would cut out my own kidney to get out of the first two years of med school. I would kill to write a paper about something - anything. I defy all reason by reading for pleasure. I insist on talking about current events. I still love history and politics and current events and movies and literature. I hate that med school has taken so much of that away from me, that there has been a literal giving over of my life and soul to this endeavor. It seems impossible to find a balance and to derive any joy from what we're learning. Everything I "learn" is an f-ing snooze. If it had some clinical relevance maybe I could care...but it doesn't and I don't.

I never think of people who are doing better than me (and that's most people) as smarter than me. Most of them are science majors and have seen this stuff before. It's really not all that impressive to make a B on a med school phys test when you're were a friggin' phys major in college. If it's the 55th time you've seen the information I would sure as hell hope you know what you're doing. I don't consider anyone smarter than me who doesn't read books or know why Tom Delay is evil or hasn't considered the things that define us as human. They're just med school drones. We'll see what happens when and if we get to the wards.

So, in fini, know that you're not alone. Hopefully we will get through this and become better doctors and people because of it.

 

[automaton]

It is so weird to read your post, quid, because I could have written the damned thing myself! Basically everything you've said I've also said. I thought I was totally alone in my angst, but apparently not. I was also a liberal arts major (film - random, I know) and I f-ing hate med school 98% of the time. Anatomy is the biggest pain in the ass on the planet. I hate the smell, I hate, hate, hate the dissecting (and all the wannabes pretending to be surgeons: "Give me the scapel, STAT!" "Uh, dude, this lady is way past stat", etc.), the friggin' blood vessels (why, oh why jesus are there so many friggin' blood vessels in the abdomen? Do we really need both an SMA and an IMA? Isn't that a bit excessive?), the nerves, the muscles, and everything else. And we haven't even started head and neck yet! Just wait until we saw our cadaver's head in half! Woopee! I plan on having acute cystitis that day. What else blows? Histo? Ridiculous. How in the hell am I supposed to tell if it's the friggin' nervous system or lymph system or any other goddamned system? It's all pink. Couldn't they find another stain? Neuro? Don't even get me started on that intellectual rape festival. Which cranial nerve causes strabismus? Which one causes you to fall down the goddamned stairs? Look, if I need to know that I'll call in a neurology consult. And phys? I thought that could be mildly interesting. But then they snuck in a bunch of formulas and made it an algebra course! What exactly is the import of Henry's Law? That gas diffuses down a concentration gradient? No sh1t sherlock. Breathing good. Not breathing bad. Rinse and repeat. Then there's the 250,879 "doctoring" classes we have to take, like Introduction to Clinical Medicine (family good, violence bad), Physical Diagnosis (shoving otoscope in wrong hole bad), and the piece de la resistance, Public Health (grog good, submarines good, Notovirus bad, pulic health clinics good, Tommy Thompson good, Beri Beri bad). This amounted to 11 tests in 4 days last week! I thought I was literally loosing my mind. I hate every single minute of school because there is absolutely zero secondary thinking involved. Memorize crap. Pick multiple choice answer. Purge mind of crap. Over and over and over. I would cut out my own kidney to get out of the first two years of med school. I would kill to write a paper about something - anything. I defy all reason by reading for pleasure. I insist on talking about current events. I still love history and politics and current events and movies and literature. I hate that med school has taken so much of that away from me, that there has been a literal giving over of my life and soul to this endeavor. It seems impossible to find a balance and to derive any joy from what we're learning. Everything I "learn" is an f-ing snooze. If it had some clinical relevance maybe I could care...but it doesn't and I don't.

I never think of people who are doing better than me (and that's most people) as smarter than me. Most of them are science majors and have seen this stuff before. It's really not all that impressive to make a B on a med school phys test when you're were a friggin' phys major in college. If it's the 55th time you've seen the information I would sure as hell hope you know what you're doing. I don't consider anyone smarter than me who doesn't read books or know why Tom Delay is evil or hasn't considered the things that define us as human. They're just med school drones. We'll see what happens when and if we get to the wards.

So, in fini, know that you're not alone. Hopefully we will get through this and become better doctors and people because of it.

i. could. not. agree. more.

 

[Paws]

I never think of people who are doing better than me (and that's most people) as smarter than me. Most of them are science majors and have seen this stuff before. It's really not all that impressive to make a B on a med school phys test when you're were a friggin' phys major in college. If it's the 55th time you've seen the information I would sure as hell hope you know what you're doing. I don't consider anyone smarter than me who doesn't read books or know why Tom Delay is evil or hasn't considered the things that define us as human. They're just med school drones. We'll see what happens when and if we get to the wards.

Thanks Elysium, I needed to hear this. That book of Robert Frost's poetry by my bed is my testimony to another world and another time. And when I am in the vortex, wind tunnel that is first year medical school, then I pick it up and read a few poems just before going to sleep. If I have lost my balance about what's real and important in life, he sure sets me straight.

 

[Pembleton]

he sure sets me straight.

Straight as a bent birch tree?

 

[thewebthsp]

I don't think medicine is like this after the first 2 years.

 

[Paws]

Straight as a bent birch tree?

"When I see birches bent left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
...
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both coming and going back.
One could do worse than to be a swinger of birches."

 

[Rod Farva]

Med school f*cking sucks. I hated the first two years, but I'm far more miserable 3rd year. It's the worst. It doesn't get better, by the way.

 

[Bo Hurley]

The other thing that bothers me - and this perhaps more than the first - is that I feel like the whole world is passing me by.
Quid

Whole world is passing you by?

What on earth are you talking about? Isn't med school the only thing in this world that matters? Who really cares about the "rest" of the world and what is going on over there---they're not the ones who are going to be doctors. That's the most important thing for you to remember. As one attending once told me with a smug tone: If you're not a doctor, you're not much of anything. This same attending was fat, short, bald and living alone. But he did drive a cool BMW and he did constantly berate residents and med students to compensate. 👍

Remember your goal: To be a doctor. That entails jumping through endless hoops---from the MCAT, to faking interest in the volunteer activities you did in undergrad, to bluffing your way through med school interviews and convincing them that you actually wanted to do some token volunteer work to pad your application instead of sleeping in, to faking interest in rotations during med school so they don't screw you over on your evals, to memorizing tons of trivial factoids for the USMLE like the other thousands of med school drones, to again bluffing your way through residency interviews and convincing them you'd be better for their program instead of some other student with virtually the same personality, grades, and other assorted resume padding activities.

In the end you'll be a doctor like the other millions of doctors out there, feel important for a while until the novelty wears off, retire, die, and maybe get a paragraph about what a great doc you were in some medical journal that an overzealous premed will read while in the bathroom. And then you'll most likely be forgotten as soon as the next edition of the journal comes out.

Just keep jumping through those hoops and you'll reach the promised land.

...just another brick in the wall...

 

[PaddyofNine]

You guys aren't the only ones who feel this way!

http://www.medschoolguide.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8800

 

[nickylynchmob@m]

Agreed! Molecules Genes and cells did suck. especially the genetics part. But I heard HSF is taught much better. I'm sure it will get better!!!
Hang in there Quid

Cornell University medical school (**** Weill)

 

[FutureNobel]

Here's an idea: stop whining. Honestly, there are people dying everyday and you are worried about your classes? Deal with it and move on.

 

[musicman1991]

dude-

med school just sucks. You get no chicks. you have to be around egocentric people all day. People always telling you you messed up.

That being said, everyone feels that way. When youare in basic science you wish for clinic rotations. when you are clinic rotations you long for electives, etc.

But I also think that most people hate their jobs, regardless of field. Not a reason to stay in medicine, but I think most people would rather be sitting on the beach.

 

[FutureNobel]

"When I see birches bent left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
...
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both coming and going back.
One could do worse than to be a swinger of birches."

Quite possibly the most meaningless collection of words I have ever read.

 

[comebackid04]

Quite possibly the most meaningless collection of words I have ever read.

Ah, yes, one could do worse as a poet than to have a spiritually myopic med student describe a "lack of meaning" to a collection of words so "disorienting" and, to the dismay of the hyperrational, subjective......... 😛