So I’ve been lurking here for a couple of days now and I can’t tell you what an inspirational forum this is!! It’s so wonderful to read everyone’s stories and realize that I’m not alone in what I initially thought was another one of my crazy ideas (I have a lot of them).
A little about me (AKA, the resume):
I’m 24, have been out of school for almost three years now. I received my undergrad in Communications from MSU(best four years of my life, although the excitement of the “college experience” definitely distracted me a bit from the educational aspect 
). I was always a natural in math and science,since middle school, and found the subject matter to be the only thing that could keep my attention for very long. In high school I took every science course I could get my hands on - including an anatomy course that was apparently “college level” with admission only being granted with express consent of the teacher. I aced it without any trouble(highest grade in the class) because I simply loved being there. Anyway, fast-forward to college, where my parents (AKA my bank-roll and the powers that be) decided that a business-oriented degree would be most suitable. I suppose the reason for this would be that we own a small company and I think they hoped I would be interested in taking over one day (I’m not). But of course, at 18 years old, I didn’t have a clue who I was or what I wanted out of life (didn’t really have a clue what life entailed outside of the bubble I grew up in), so I accepted my parents’ decision, assuming they knew best. So here I am now, almost three years into “the real world,” working for a non-profit company handling fundraising for the local pub radio station. I make great money compared to most people my age, get a lot of respect at work and have a lot of flexibility as far as needing time off, etc. This would probably be a lot of people’s dream job, but I go home everyday drained - not because I’ve worked hard or had a crazy day, but because I’m bored out of my skull and feel like what I’m doing has zero impact on the world. ((Sigh)) And so began my quest to “find myself” (or, I guess, my future self). I won’t go into that whole journey, but suffice to say I’ve explored a lot of ideas and systematically ruled each one out. I think one has to be pretty desperate to decide to embark on a journey as long and treacherous as medicine and that’s exactly how I arrived here.
As I said, I’ve been lurking here for a few days - and on some other sites for the last few weeks. The idea to make a run for medical school came up rather suddenly, but I know this isn’t something I can go into without doing all the research imaginable and answering every question and formulating a CLEAR plan from the beginning. I assumed that, as happened with every other idea I’ve explored in the past year, once I had explored this from all angles, it would end up on the drawing room floor with the rest of them. I mean, who do I think I am, trying to go to medical school with a 3.0 ugrad GPA in a degree that has NOTHING to do with science??
But something amazing has happened.
The more I read on these forums and the more information I take in from every pre-med and med school website I can get my browser on, the more confident I am that I can do this. Every fear and doubt I’ve had has been systematically alleviated by reading the stories on here and seeing that this really boils down to me and my resolve to do this - which is something I can count on because I’ve always loved accomplishing the “uncomplish-able”. So far my fears and doubts have been related to my age, how long this will take, how I will manage starting a family in the middle of it all and how I will make the pre-med stuff work while keeping my job (necessary). Fortunately I have the most supportive boyfriend (AKA future husband - not letting this one go!) in the world and he is totally on board, which helps immensly. My newest fear, now that I’ve decided to go for it, was whether I could actually handle the course-work. I only took two very general science courses in college (required for gen-ed) that do not in any way count for the pre-req’s (which I guess is good, since I’m starting out with a blank slate for the sciences). So, naturally, I started to wonder just how overwhelming the subject matter would be. I’ve decided that, if I’m going to do this, I need to do it the right way from the start. So I went to Barnes & Noble today and pulled out “Chemistry…” “Physics…” “Biology…” and “Organic Chemistry for Dummies” (I’ve heard that orgo is the bain of most people’s pre-med existence, so I expected this one to be the straw that broke the camel’s back). Of course I realize that the “…for Dummies” series is not the most scholarly look at a subject, I assumed that it would give me a general idea of the basics of each course, which would tell me if I could even begin to think about taking these subjects on. So this is the amazing part: I remembered how much I love science! I mean, I may be the only person who has started reading a book on organic chemistry and felt an excited rush. I’m not talking about fear, but serious excitement. I actually can’t wait to take orgo now! I am a very visual learner and I have definitely seen a lot of the material before in other classes. I realize it won’t be easy, but I’m not looking for easy. I’m looking for fascinating and this is it. Same thing happened with the Physics book. I’m a natural at algebra - have been from the first class I took in 6th grade. I forgot what a rush I used to get from looking at a math problem and knowing that the answer was there and all I had to do was find it.
I guess I’m just a geek at heart and I guess what I’m trying to say with this VERY LONG intro is that I feel like I’ve finally found my path and I can’t wait to get started. I will definitely be needing some support, though, as I have decided not to tell anyone besides my boyfriend about this idea at least until I’ve completed some of the coursework successfully (hence the long ramble here - needed to get these thoughts out so I could see if they seemed totally crazy - they still do, but I’m OK with that). Anyway, I will be posting my progress and thoughts and questions on here throughout the journey and welcome any insights you all can give me - including re-directing me to this optimistic post when I’m feeling discouraged, which I’m sure will happen. 
Good luck!
Don’t take too many science courses at once. There is a posting on here, something like"Richard’s rules for non-traditional students" that I recommend highly. Look at that for good advice.
Thank you! I’ve read it (half of my concerns were alleviated by it and then another group sprung up from it, haha!). I’m definitely ready to take this slow and steady.