Blog the First

So this is my first time blogging. I feel like I might have something different and unique to say. Maybe I do or maybe my family will be the only ones to subscribe. I guess we will find out. So here we go!

I quit facebook last week because I realized that all it did was waste my time. I never really talked to anyone on it. I didn't use it to stay in contact. I played games and looked at profiles and pictures--mostly of people I didn't know. So I started a blog because this way I can talk(type) and maybe along the way I can make some new friends, encourage someone, make someone laugh.

Now that you know why I started a blog, here is a little about me. I am 24, married to my best friend, and a college graduate(almost twice). I finished the coursework I needed to apply for medical school in December. I need to take the MCAT(Medical College Admission Test) this spring. Yes, I am going to be a doctor. Hopefully. My actual bachelor degree is in Marketing. A stretch from marketing to medical? Maybe. Here's how it worked: ever since I was a little kid I went back and forth between marketing and the medical field.

Age 8: When I grow up, I want to be a pediatrician.
Why: In the movie Joe versus the Volcano with Tom Hanks, there is a scene where Joe is waiting to see his psychiatrist and the waiting room is awful. Like bland-city! I thought, "If I were a doctor, I could make my waiting room so much cooler than that!" I wanted to have those mini-recliners in my office for little kids. And cool paint on the walls--bright, happy colors and my nurses would wear the coolest scrubs.

Age 11-ish: Marketing is so cool! I think I could do it.
Why: Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster in What Women Want are advertising executives and got to come up with the coolest campaigns for everything from Tylenol to Nike. This would give me an outlet for my creativity.

Age 16: Midwife. I definitely want to be a midwife.
Why: I love babies and taking care of women while they are pregnant and helping bring new life into the world would be awesome.

Age 20: Declare Marketing as my major at the beginning of my third year of college.
Why: I was living in a town far away from my family and my boyfriend. I had been oscillating between medicine and business for years. I wanted to be done with school.

Age 21(three months and a birthday after declaring marketing major): Doctor, I need to be a doctor. However, I keep the marketing major.
Why: I realized that just wanting to be done with school is not enough of a reason to decide anything about the rest of my life. I knew after three months in the business school that it wasn't a good fit for me. I needed to find something that would let me help people. Being a doctor is the most tangible way possible to help people. As a marketer, I would have woke up every morning for the rest of my working life and hated going to work. I had changed my mind so many times. I didn't want to be a quitter. So I didn't change my major.

Age 22: Graduated from college after 3 1/2 years. Degree in Marketing with emphasis in Marketing Analytics. Moved closer to where I wanted to be. Started classes to get prereq's for medical school done (who knew that a degree in marketing wouldn't get you too far towards medical school?). Thinking about Primary Care. (Primary Care Physicians are pediatricians, family practitioners and doctors specializing in internal medicine. They are the front lines of medical care and are those who develop the most long term relationships with their patients).

Age 23:  Do a two week medical preceptorship at a local clinic. I got to see so many procedures, meet so many people and get a glimpse into so many different specialists and primary care physicians lives and practices. It was the best experience, career-wise, that I have ever had. I came out of it knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that I want to be a doctor. I also knew that I want to practice primary care. I want the relationships.

Age 24(now): Looming primary care physician shortage. I have just finished my prerequisites for medical school. Studying hard for the MCAT. I am so glad I didn't take it last spring while working 25 hours a week, going to school full time and planning my wedding. Now I am married, working full time and studying. I took Biochemistry in the fall and am feeling much more prepared than I would have been last year. It pushed back med school for a year, but I firmly believe that everything happens for a purpose.

More to come.....