A 40 year old Medical Student

In this blog, I will express my excitement, my desires, my fustrations,and my potential obstacles to gaining admissions to medical school at age 40. I will attempt to express how I will use my enthusiam, dicipline and determination to over come every potential obstacle.

During this blog, I hope to spark and stimulate your curiosity to learn more about yourself, the decisions your have made thus far in life, are you on the correct path in life, are you pursuing your goals and dreams. A wise person once said, "Do not ignore your dreams. Your dreams will lead you to your path in life. Pursue your dreams."

After graduating from high school at the age 16, I realized that I didn't pursue my dream of becoming a cheerleader becuase "I thought I was too skinny." WOW, too skinny, cheerleaders are suppose to be skinny, right? That is a dream I can never go back to or accomplish. I did not want to live my life in "if I coulda, woulda shoulda." So, I said to myself, I will never let fear of people or what people think keep me from doing what I want to do in life.

Well, not really having a concrete plan for my next step in life after high school, I decided to join the US Air Force. Wow, what an adventure. I had a wonderful time. I was able to be independent and earn money for college. This was the beginning of following my dreams and discovering my path.

As I gained real world experience and responsibility, I developed a strong work ethic and sense of pride in excelling to the top, not letting anything hender me from achieving the highest honors in all my military training, early promotion, awarded Air Force Commendation medals, etc., I was on my way.

At this point in my life I considered myself as a person that loved life and felt as though I could achieve anything. I was living life to the fullest and pursuing my dreams. I was able to finish a successful tour with the Air Force, graduate from college (the first in my family) and began a successful career. After 20 years in the work place, I come to discover, my true dream of becoming a doctor has been suppressed for lack of financing to attend graduate school, fear, not enough time, perhaps Im not smart enough, etc.

Well, the turning point in my life came summer 2008. As I began to seek for my true self, seek God for answers as to why doors were closing for me, I was mediatating and medical school came to mind. ??? Medical school??? Yes, medical school. During the course of the last few years in my previous profession, I had the pleasure of having a few doctors as clients and each time I would say to myself, "I should have been a doctor. I could do that. They are no different than me, no smarter, no wiser, etc." My experience of life has brought about a 180 degree turnaround in my ability to comprehend complex concepts and has sharpened my keen sense of discpline, I believed that would make me a great medical school candidate. I decided Im going to medical school.

After spending hours on the internet research criteria of getting accepted, I noticed I was lacking all the prerequistes need to apply, Cal 1, 2 yrs of Biology, 2 yrs of Chemistry, 1 yr of Physics. I enrolled in college to finish these courses. I just finished two course (8 credit hours) in the summer session: Cal 1 and Biology 1, both with A's. Now, that was crazy. My schedule was so tight that I could do nothing else but study. Having a full and hetic schedule is only preparing me for a successful medical school experience.

I spoke to the premed guidiance counsellor and he said it will take me 2 to 3 years to finish all these courses and get ready for the MCAT (medical entry exam) WHAT? At his proposed schedule, I would be 41 apply for medical school. I do not have 2 to 3 years to wait to apply. I needed to complete the majority of these classes within one year. And that is what I am going to do.

For the fall semester I am taking Bio 2, Chemistry and Physics. Spring 2009: I am taking Chem 2, Physics 2 and Biology 3 (Anatomy and physiology) and Biology 4 Immunology and Genetic. I plan to apply to Medical school by May 31, 2008 and all I will have left to complete are Organic Chemistry I and II, which I can complete in the summer or the Fall and Spring of 2010. (Since, medical school applications are submitted the year before you plan on attending, I will have one whole year to finish up any prerequistes before the first day of medical school starts.) Also, I will be taking the MCAT in the Spring as well. I plan on making all A's in everyone of these classes and make at least a 32 on the MCAT.

I know, I know...this is alot. But, I know I am capable of doing this. I have a wonderful support system. My husband is 100% behind me on this. So, with him support I am able to focus 100% of my time and energy to my studies.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. As I was doing my research on attending medical school and looking at all the schools in Texas. I noticed a section addressing veterans. As I began to read at approximately 1:30 am, I saw something that was totally beautiful. In the state of Texas, if you are a veteran that served in the listed wars (I served in Desert Storm), entered the military in Texas, received a honorable discharged, etc. I would receive a tuition and fee waiver that is good for undergraduate and graduate school. I had no idea about this exemption. I could have used it for my undergraduate degree, but I used my military GI bill. Now, this is really icing on the cake. Remember, how one of my fears were that I did not have the money to pay of graduate school, that has worked itself out.

What I've learned to reinforce the saying, "Do not ignore your dreams. They will lead you to your path in life. Pursue your dreams." As I pursue my dreams, my path is still unfolding even at 38 years old. As I continue to pursue my dream, I will have my acceptance letter to medical school by the time I am 39 and will enter medical school at the wonderful age of 40.