Hello, my fellow inspirational OPMs! I just received a finalized grade report for this past semester.I took 17 credits, worked, financially relied on myself only and ended up with 4.0 again.
I have completed
General Chemistry I with lab
English Comp II
Abnormal Psychology Honors
Cognitive Psychology Honors
Spanish I
It has been a very challenging process for me and I have struggled a lot. On top of my academic and work load, my very close friend took her own life in the middle of semester, my best friend was going through chemotherapy and my mom went into cardiac arrest back in Europe during the week of finals. All of the above pushed me to the edge of insanity, I barely ate, I stopped exercising, felt drained and empty, and saw no hope to continue my classes. Having no family in the states, I was on my own and feeling my dream slipping away. However, I am so blessed with wonderful people I keep meeting in my life that continue to inspire me and remind me of how far I have made it already.
I wanted to share something I learnt this semester:
There is never a good time, never a perfect moment, never enough time, never a perfect opportunity to do what you love, and tomorrow is not guaranteed. Unexpectedly, life can break your heart in many different ways.
I had to make time and move mountains to create that perfect moment in every single day, day after day, after day.
In high school, back in Europe, my chemistry teacher insulted my intelligence publicly and my chemistry grade was an American equivalent of C-/D; my English teacher from back home laughed in my face when she heard I was going to study English on the university level. I also have attention deficit ( I do not use medication) and very poor auditory memory. I have to record my lectures and do extra work by rewriting them on paper over and over again, because the notes I make in class are useless. Being foreign, each class is challenging me with so much extra English vocabulary.
However, I have unbeatable determination, discipline, perseverance, and faith. I want my dream to manifest as much as I want to wake up each morning.Sometimes I feel like giving up, or even wish I was dead, but wonderful people that life puts in my path,faith in myself and my dream never failed to pull me through my pain and keep my strong.
Thank you for “listening”,and I hope you all have a wonderful winter and very successful next semester! Lets keep inspiring each other!
Hi LifePlusMedicine
It’s fantastic that you are following your dream and I am confident that if you have done so well until now, you have what it takes to get acceptance into med school.
The education system is very different in the US and it certainly is more welcoming to people from various backgrounds and personalities.
The education system in most European countries , on the other hand, is very cruel and discriminating if you are not one of the lucky few who have been able to mature by the age of 15 or so. I wasn’t one of them and was not even ready to apply to med school at the age of 17. Missing this opportunity has haunted me ever since.
The dark side of the limitless opportunities we have in the US to pursue our dreams is the cost of education. But I think having the opportunity to become a doctor is worth the cost for most of us…
Hello and thank you for your kind words. I agree that cost of medical education in the Unites States is brutal, but I am grateful for the opportunity to become a doctor and continue helping communities on a bigger and better scale. So far it has been a year and a half into my 4 year premed journey and I truly enjoy the process. I love every class I have taken so far and I have been lucky with supportive teachers and friends. However, all my friends have settled and I wish I had someone nearby to share my nontraditional pathway:) I do skip most family and friend gatherings, birthdays, holidays due to school and work load though. But it is no news for someone who wants to be in medicine.
I am taking 18 credits this semester and only keeping my part time hospital job. My classes start tomorrow and I can’t wait to be back in the game. Wishing everyone good health and a very productive semester! Never give up!
So incredibly proud of you!!! So much hard work!! I do not have attention deficit, but I do struggle with dyscalculia. When I took calculus, I had to write, and re-write, and re-write equations over and over and over and over, until they were carved into my brain through rote and repetition. For every problem I worked, I worked it the equivalent of 5 times or more to gain a true understanding of what actually occurred in the equation. Most of my weekends were spent in the local library, so it was quiet enough to concentrate, and laboriously copying equations. I passed, and so did you - your grades are outstanding!!! Congratulations!!!
I’ll leave this here for you:
Thank you everybody for support! I wonder how everyone is doing this semester. I feel like I work much harder on second part of chem and bio.
Hello Everybody! I just wanted to share that 18 credits + two labs and a job is not a good idea at all! Six weeks left into the semester and I decided to quit all my work load and focus on classes only.I know this process, as we all say, is a marathon and not a sprint. I am behind in every single class, and even the spring break daily study session did not help all that much. I am returning to classes tomorrow in “beast mode” 
, work-free for 7 weeks and planning 14 hour study days 7 days a week to fix the situation.Wish me luck! 
You can do it.