Done with the first week!

I'm finally done with the first week of medical school! The best way I can describe it is that it felt like a hurricane hit me in the face. I thought I "knew" what I was getting myself into, but I couldn't be more wrong. For some reason, I thought that the professors would try to ease us into this whole medical school thing despite older students saying otherwise. Instead, they basically hosed us with information. I don't think I've ever had this much information shoved into my brain in the span of a week. I also don't think I've ever worked as hard as I did this past week. Yes, that includes graduate school.

I think part of the reason why i worked so hard at the beginning of the week was that within the first two days, I already felt so behind. I mean Histology was alright, we were basically relearning what I learned in undergraduate biology. Sure there was some new terminology and it was slightly more in-depth, but nothing too crazy. Gross Anatomy though, my gosh, I wasn't expecting that. I really didn't have any anatomy background going into the class so everything seemed so brand new. For instance, I never knew there were so many terms for describing the features on a bone. Then when you throw on top of that trying to learn all the origin/insertion/innervation/actions of the muscles, I think it's easy to see why I felt so overwhelmed. I clearly remember on the second day of school studying in the library and asking myself what have I gotten myself in to.

Obviously, things have gotten better. I feel like when you remember that medical school is a marathon, not a sprint, it helps put things into perspective. Yes, there is a lot of information coming my way, but there's also a lot of  time to learn the material. At first, 3.5 weeks didn't seem like enough time to learn all the bones/muscles/arteries/nerves of the upper limb, but once you immerse yourself in the material every single day, it's amazing how much you can learn. I'm definitely amazed at how far I've come in a single week and excited by all the material I'm learning (sounds pretty nerdy right?). I've still got a long way to go before I'm prepared to take an exam, but the journey so far has definitely been encouraging!

Anyways, I figured I'd end my post with some takeaways from my first week in medical school.

• Don't compare yourself to other students. Everyone comes from a different background and all that you're doing is placing additional pressure on yourself. Just because one student can recite all the branches of the axillary artery and brachial plexus doesn't meant that you're any less competent. Take your time and slowly chip away at the material, it'll be fine in the end.
  
• Try to maintain some semblance of balance in your daily life. Medical school is definitely time consuming, but don't let it consume all of you. For me, that means trying to work out and talking to my girlfriend every night. The last thing I want to do it think about Gross Anatomy 24/7
  
• Get to know the people around you outside of just medicine. Don't simply ask them what specialty they want to do, ask about their hobbies, passions, and life experiences. It makes for better conversations and helps build stronger relationships.

That's all I got for now. Thanks for checking in and see you all next week!

Andrew