I had almost a year of downtime between finding out that I was accepted into med school and actually moving down and starting med school. Needless to say, especially towards the end, I went a little nuts. There were so many different types of stressors going on at once, especially since I was still working full time and taking classes that they wanted me to pick up. I was excited at times, nervous at others, and always feeling at least a little bit overwhelmed. So, what did I do? I made myself busy, of course! The following is a list of things I did to prep myself for moving to the Caribbean to start med school.
- Watched the whole run of Scrubs
This was probably the single piece of advice that I had read the most. Supposedly, out of all the various popular fictional medical tv shows, Scrubs has been the most scientifically sound. It is also a humourous, but fairly honest, look into life as a med student. I really enjoyed watching this show, but take a piece of advice – don’t watch the last season. It’s just better that way. I did also binge watch a couple of other shows, like Peaky Blinders, Oz, and you know I made sure to be caught up on Dr Who and Game of Thrones. I figured that I wouldn’t have much time to spend watching TV for awhile and I would be in a place where the time I did have I wouldn’t want to spend that way, anyway. - Made sure our financial game was on point
One of my favorite things to both think and worry about, in all the good and bad that that can mean, is money. I actually really enjoy working on our finances. So, knowing that we were going be making such a drastic change, I set about figuring out how we could get our finances in the best order possible. Between the two of us, we picked up as much extra work as we could possibly handle. I even started donating plasma twice a week (made almost an extra $2000 that way!) We paid off all the debts that we thought we needed to and then gave ourselves as much of a cushion as we could. We wanted to be as safe as possible because once we moved, we didn’t know where money would be coming from, other than loans. - Read books by doctors about doctoring, but not medical books
I got turned on to our local digital library by a nurse on my unit. It was awesome. It gave me a tremendous amount of access to books, all in my pocket or on my tablet. I used my reading time to peruse their medical section. I stayed away from medical books because, after all, there would be plenty of time for me to focus on that. Instead, I read memoirs of ER psychologists, surgery residents and other books like those. What it helped me to do was start to learn the mindset and process that a doctor goes through when working with a patient. Even more so, it made me get even more excited about the adventure we were about to launch. - Ate all my favorite food
We actually made a list. All the restaurants that we wanted to hit in Lincoln, Nebraska, where we were living, all the restaurants to make sure to go to back home in South Dakota, and all the family recipes that we wanted one more time. The cost of imported groceries on island is quite high, so it’s advantageous to eat as local as possible. That meant many of my favorite foods wouldn’t be available. Our “one last time before we go eating” was one of my favorite parts about prepping to go. - Buy Stuff
This is especially true if you’re going to school on island somewhere. Again, the tariffs and import costs are so high that it makes sense to bring as much of your school supplies with you as possible. Even the stuff that feels a little dumb to bring, like extra shampoo, pens and the like, it’s generally better to bring if you can. Getting into med school was a big payoff after so much work that, along with my school supplies and the things we needed for living in the Caribbean, we also chose to indulge a little bit. We purchased a few new clothes, shoes and even got our own snorkel gear. All this stuff adds up, too, so for me, who likes to think about money, it was nice to sit down, figure what all we needed, the budget, and then figure out how to make it happen. - Made intentional time for family
I come from a pretty big family – not necessarily number wise, but in personality. When we get together, if people start talking over you it’s your own fault for not talking loud enough. We were leaving right after Christmas, so I knew that I would get some good group family time in before we go, but that wouldn’t be the same as having a true chance to connect. So, coffee with grandma, an afternoon with cousins, movies with nieces and nephews, whatever seemed important to them. I just wanted to be sure that I got to see my family on their ground before I went. We are so far away and so wrapped up in this current adventure that I know while I don’t want to lose touch and drift a bit, I necessarily will. - Kept up on my A & P
Okay, so everyone’s advice, and probably mine included, is don’t worry too much about studying. In fact, most people flat out say don’t do it. I needed to do something more concrete to prep for med school, though. It’s also partly that I ended up picking up a Picmonic subscription earlier than I had intended so that I could take advantage of a sale. I chose to just focus on studying material that I had already learned in previous classes. Anatomy and Physiology seemed to be the ones that made the most sense, so there is where I focused. It also helped me to work on habit building and practicing interacting with my study materials a little differently.
So, that’s pretty much how I prepped for med school. Y’know, as well as launching a blog and podcast. It was one of the longest waits I’ve ever had, especially when it got to be our last month in Nebraska before went home for the holidays. But, keep yourself busy, productive and happy. Enjoy that time because it is going to go by faster than you expect, so make those moments count!