Medical school student selection, at least in the U.S., is a long, strenuous and anxious period for applicants. I know this because I was recently a fretful applicant: worrying if my GPA was high enough, convincing myself that going to a state school would wreck my chances at acceptance, thinking that my application, amongst eight or nine thousand others, was bound to get buried in a pile to never be exhumed.
Given the deluge of applications every year, you might think that the lucky few that do get accepted would be the cream of the crop, and would exude intelligence, confidence, humility, and all the other finer qualities we associate with doctors. Having had a full semester to gauge my 2021 class of 140 students, I now know that medical school, at least in my case, is basically as much of a shit show as you might expect out of a small high school--it's cliquey, petty squabbles break out on a fairly regular basis, there is silly drama between boys and girls (I guess men and women at this point), plenty of students engage in somewhat uncouth and stigmatized social activities (more smoking pot and cigarettes than you might expect for our next generation of doctors), and I've yet to meet anyone composed of all the qualities that make up the ideal medical school candidate. So if you were worried that you might not fit the bill because of one deficiency, take a nice deep inhale......
The halloween party we had this year is a pretty good example of just how far from exemplary medical students can be. About half of us were shit-housed, we were listening to the same banal dance music we listened to at middle school and high school dances including "Yeah" by Usher and "Toxic" by Britney Spears with a not-so-welcome (yet surprisingly welcome) appearance of "Despacito"' by whoever sings Despacito. Suffice to say, beer goggles (and I guess you could call our satisfaction with dismal music beermuffs?) were on good and tight that night. Jello shots were passed around, beer pong was played, sloppy hook-ups occurred, friends were blacked out to the point of lack of recognition, and a fight even broke out over the boundaries of one of the female students that was evidently being harassed enough by another, older student to warrant a skirmish.
On the sober side of things, the students who absolutely destroy the academic aspects of med school tend to have weaker social capacities and struggle a bit more working in groups, while those who are more more socially adept tend to lack the processing bandwidth to excel academically. It's not to say that there aren't those students who strike a fine balance between being academically and socially gifted, but it does seem to hold true that the most impressive in one category usually have larger drawbacks in others. Talent has a way of distributing itself.
I relate these things to you Steemians interested in medicine out there to let you know that even those who are considered model citizens in our culture are enmeshed in the buffoonery of youth. By going into medicine, you are not necessarily committing yourself to a life of abstinence from all things unruly. I mean, you can if you want, but there happen to be many opportunities to stray from the path of perfection and enjoy some time in the Devil's playground (in a good way). If you have a true spark as it pertains to medicine, you will happily jump back into the pool of medical education even after taking some scenic hiatuses. So follow your passions, realize that if you're committed you have just as much a shot to become a doctor as anyone else, and take it from me that every single medical student, no matter the intelligence level, has flaws, and it's those who commit themselves to working them out that will ultimately make their way into this profession and survive in this profession.
-Steemmate
Sources:
-Cartoon by Michael Maslin of The New Yorker