Update on M1

Praise God! I've made it through the second unit of gross anatomy and histology/embryology. It's definitely been a crazy 8 weeks. When I think about it, I can't believe that it's already been two months. I feel like I've been in medical school for way longer.. Here are some highlights from the last couple of weeks:

• In lab, we cut open our cadaver's skull and pulled out his brain. It was a pretty surreal experience
• I found out I'm going to Haiti in February for a medical mission trip. I'm so stoked!
• I passed my first four exams, I'm surviving med school! :p
• Got to hang out with some old friends, definitely was a huge blessing

Anyways, I'm actually doing a lot better than I thought I would. I feel like because I didn't come from a traditional medical background, I'd lag behind all the other students in terms of learning the material. Although this is true to an extent, I feel like I generally have enough time to learn the material fairly well to pass the tests. One of the things that I really appreciate about medicine compared to engineering is that I can find fairly decent explanations for most of the topics I'm currently learning on youtube. Whether it's how the embryo folds or ways to memorize the cranial nerves, there always seems to be some video that will magically make it all clear. This is compared to mechanical engineering where I still don't really understand how to use bernoulli's equations in complex fluid flow problems (curse you ME 320!!).

My faith has also rebounded since the beginning of med school. When I first started, I think I definitely turned med school into an idol. It came to the point where I couldn't really focus on my devos since I felt like I needed to study all the time. However, once I started prioritizing my relationship with God over med school, I started having a lot more peace and joy amidst the daily grind of school.

One of the prayers that I found particularly helpful over the past couple weeks was to ask God to help me remain joyful irrespective of what happened in school. Regardless of whether lab went well or not, whether I passed my exams or not, I really wanted to focus on praising God in all situations. I truly believe that's important for me since med school really has been God's blessing to me. So rather than complaining about all the things that went wrong during the day or all the studying I need to do, praising God in everything has helped me remain calm and keep perspective as to why I'm in med school in the first place.

In addition, this passage from Ephesians 3:14-19 has been especially helpful over the past few weeks

"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith - that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breath and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

In particular, the part of the passage that struck me the most is when it talks about how knowing the love of Christ surpasses all knowledge. This was such a huge reminder for me when I was studying for my exams. This passage helped me remember that it doesn't matter how much anatomy or embryology I learn because this worldly knowledge can't ultimately fulfill me. The only thing that can is the love of Jesus.

Anyways, this ended up being longer than I expected. Sorry I don't have any pictures to show you guys, I need to do a better job of that lol. Thanks for checking in though and I'll see you all next time!

Andrew

Finally a break

Needless to say, it's been a longg time since I last updated this. I guess my attempt to blog my journey hasn't been as fruitful as I expected. Regardless, I will continue to write when I get a chance (or remember) to keep a memoir of my experiences.

Anyways, school has been pretty crazy. With all the work/research/gsi stuff going on, it definitely feels difficult to stay on top of everything. Luckily though, I was able to submit all my medical school secondaries at the beginning of October. That was definitely a huge relief. In total, I applied to 17 schools, two of which have already rejected me (UPitt and Mayo) and had one interview this past week. The interview was at Wayne State and it went alright. In retrospect, I should of been more prepared and realized that they would of asked me a lot of personal questions. Instead, I was expecting more of a technical interview like in engineering so I was somewhat caught off guard. The interview started a little rough but got better as it wore on. Overall, it was a 30 min interview so not sure if that's good or bad.

Now, I'm just waiting for schools to get back to me. Most of them take anywhere from a month to three months, so I'm not really expecting anything happen. I guess it's good then that school keeps me busy so I don't need to think about this too much. Honestly though, school has its own challenges as well. Luckily though, God has definitely been blessing me amidst a difficult/challenging semester so I'm beyond grateful for that.

I think that's really all I have to say for now. I'm pretty tired after having all my doctors appointments on the same day. Fall break probably could of been a little more restful/relaxing, but in the big picture that's really nothing to complain about. See ya later!

The Journey Begins

Hey all!

It's been a crazy two months ever since I got out of school. I went into summer with a pretty solid idea of what the next couple years of my life were going to look like. I would work as an intern at Bosch, hopefully get an offer, finish my Masters degree, and then return full-time at Bosch. Everything seemed to be going according to my plan.

Obviously, God's plan was different.

This has been a couple years in the making, but this internal struggle really came to its climax the beginning of June. I won't get in to too much detail (probably will write a post about it at a later date), but basically, I've been debating engineering versus medicine for quite some time now. While working at Bosch and Medtronic last summer, I really questioned whether I could see myself as an engineer for the rest of the my life. It's not that the work was especially challenging (although there were certain moments), I just felt like my passion wasn't always there. If I am going to dedicate a significant portion of my life to a career, I want to be doing something that lies at the intersection of my passion and the world's needs. Now please don't get me wrong, I believe engineering has its purpose. I can list off a ton of examples where engineering has improved the lives of millions. The problem for me is that I don't think engineering is where my God given passion truly lies. It's something that I'm good at, but not something I'm completely passionate about.

That's where medicine comes in. For those of you who don't know, I was technically both a Pre-Med student and Mech. Eng student. If you want to know how it was, words can't even begin to describe how much it sucks. Luckily though, amidst the many times I almost quit Pre-Med, my dad forced me to finish the MCAT, which I'm now very grateful for. I'll be honest, I don't have tons of experience in the medical field. Besides the 40+ hours volunteering at the hospital (which really is nothing) and shadowing Robert Chang, I'm pretty much new to the medical field. Regardless, this brief glimpse of the medical field was enough to convince me that this was something I would be completely passionate about. When I add in the medical missionary testimonies at Knox and Urbana, I felt like medicine was something that would enable me to passionately and purposefully serve God's kingdom. Throw in the fact that my girlfriend wants to be a nurse, I felt like God was basically saying, "Andrew just choose medicine."

Anyways, that's pretty much a quick overview of what's been going on in my life recently. I wanted to start a blog as a way for me to record my thoughts and practice my writing skills. I already submitted my medical school primary app and writing the personal statement was one of the most difficult things I've done in a long time (over 9 drafts). It definitely doesn't help that Mech. Eng has basically turned me into a technical writer, one who gets straight to the point and is devoid of emotions. Hopefully through blogging though, I can improve my non-technical writing as well as address many of the questions I will likely come across in secondary applications and interviews.

In one year, my life will be radically different. Maybe I'll be in medical school, or maybe I'll be trying to find a job (more on this later). Regardless, thanks for following my journey! Can't wait to see what God has in store for me

Andrew