Well, I asked my grandmother for a topic and I got one: what am I doing to prepare for med school? This should be easy, since the topic fills my brain, either on a front or a back burner, a lot of the time.

So, what am I doing?

1. Treating my transcript like a “sacred shrine of gold.”

My mother’s words, not mine. This means paying what can seem like way too much attention to my classes, and, by extension, to my grades. It means paying attention and staying organized. It means getting things done before they have to be done – that’s new this semester. It means going to class, analyzing what I’m doing right or wrong, and preparing for exams as thoroughly as possible. But, above all, it means giving my classes the highest conceivable priority. If it’s important for school, I take care of it. Work, social activities, goofing off, hobbies, or things lower down on this list will just have to wait. Years, possibly, maybe more than a decade. I can take it.

Thanks to jesuscm at Flickr Creative Commons

2. Planning ahead…way ahead.

I have been doing this for a long time, but recently I sat down with my adviser and made a plan, from now until fall 2012, when I will hopefully begin med school. We made a chart of when I will take all my important classes and what I will do in each  summer. We chose an MCAT test date over a year in the future, carefully early enough and late enough, so that I will have the information I need but also have time to take it again. I have been attempting this kind of planning for a long time, always thinking ahead  to “what’s next?”

3. Volunteering:

This is one aspect I truly enjoy. In high school, community service was done “because I have to.” Now, it’s not mandatory, and perhaps for that reason, I get a great deal out of it. The main things I have done so far are being involved in TCU Leaps and, very recently, volunteering at Cook Children’s. My plan is to continue both, and hopefully get more involved in the summer.

4. Getting experience talking with and observing actual doctors

I have done and plan to do this mostly in two ways, both through the Health Professions group at TCU. Firstly, going to meetings where doctors come to speak about their specialty and other aspects of their profession; also, “shadowing,” where an interested student follows a doctor around their place of work to get an idea of the day to day aspect of that specialty, and the health field in general. I have done this once, in 2008; I actually shadowed a nurse practitioner and a registered nurse at a children’s hospital in Austin. I plan to do more next semester.

5. Staying involved in health-related opportunities in the community

Slightly different from straight community service, this is also something I enjoy a lot. Fulfilling this goal could encompass going to meetings and presentations about health fields, such as this fall, when I attended the 2009 Synergy Infant Mortality Forum, which concerned the high infant mortality rate in Tarrant County. It could also be getting involved in organizations I am a part of in a health-related way; for example, I just completed training to be a Hospital Minister for my church, and soon will start visiting patients in a nearby hospital as a representative of my parish.

Also, I follow health-related news on a regular basis.

6. The nitty gritty.

This is basically bookkeeping, tying up ends and making sure things go smoothly for the above to work. This includes some crucial tasks, such as:

-Getting enough sleep every night. It may seem absurd as I am a college student, but I get to bed regularly before 10pm and wake before 7am. This allows me to actually be conscious most of the day, and to get to school early.

-Making sure I have enough money. I have worked during school when possible, and over breaks similarly. Last summer I worked, and while I have not done so this semester as it just wasn’t going to jive with number 1 above, I will start working again this winter break, likely as soon as finals are over. Also, this fall I made the decision to live at home, taking into account financial realities: by saving money on housing, I can take classes in the summer.

-Staying stable: This is paramount. Getting enough sleep, eating enough, trying to exercise somewhat regularly, and so on, are important to all of the above. Keeping up connections with supporting friends and family is very helpful in this regard, also.

In closing, I would like to make two points. First, doing well in my classes is important for many reasons, too many to count. The “sacred shrine of gold” concept is fairly tongue in cheek. The first thing on the list is simply making “preparing for the next step” a priority in general. Secondly, for the most part I do the things above because I like to, not because it “fits the bill.” To be sure, I love my classes, and when I look at the requirements for my plan, I see classes I am excited to take, that I would probably choose out of interest anyways. Volunteering is something else I just really enjoy; I love being at the hospital, I find it fascinating and fitting, “the place I want to be.” I am hard pressed to come up with something that fits the heading “I am only doing this for my preparations, I wouldn’t do it otherwise, and I don’t like it.” Even things like working or studying in the summer, while difficult decisions to make, jive fairly well with my inclinations.

So, that’s it. Hopefully I haven’t bored anyone to tears. My grandmother suggested the topic. I hope this fits your idea, GA!