One Month Until First Year of Medical School

Where Am I Today?

Until recently I was living in Paris. I had moved to Paris in July 2019 to start working as a Startup Analyst at Hello Tomorrow, a startup itself that supports the development of “deep technologies”, cutting-edge tech applied in digital, quantum physics, biology, new materials, and beyond.

I truly enjoyed my working environment and my amazing multi-cultural coworkers, but I rather quickly realized I couldn’t envision myself continuing this job. I found myself going to the office only to put off work that needed to get done, while I spent time on my personal projects. I didn’t feel the excitement. Several months into the job, I knew that I was ready for medical school.

I made the decision to finish my contract in April 2020 and spend the rest of the months up until medical school traveling around Europe as one last hoorah. I had even planned a big trip to the Balkans that would take me through thirteen different cities. Unfortunately, in March 2020 when the novel COVID-19 virus exploded, the entire world went on the lockdown. I was trapped in Paris until now.

Quarantine and lockdown in Paris were rather strict. We couldn’t go outside except for essential necessities like groceries, seeing a doctor, or critical work. If we did go outside, we had to fill out a declaration stating our name, address, date of birth, and precisely at what time we left our house. If we were caught without a declaration we were fined, and if we were caught further than 1 kilometer from our residence, we were also fined. Quarantine was very tough.

Now that restrictions have eased up throughout more and more of Europe. I decided it was time for me to leave Paris because let’s be honest, Parisian rent without a job can become quite the liability. So, I decided to travel to Bulgaria (my mother country) and spend time in nature, visiting my family, and escaping the bustling city of love.

One Month To Go

I will be starting my first year of medical school on July 13th, 2020. This means I have precisely one month until this amazing adventure begins. I anticipate that this won’t be like any other normal first year. Second-look day was a virtual experience. Finding roommates based on Facebook profile pictures can be quite daunting. Meeting my classmates through Zoom was nonetheless quite amusing. We ended up playing some games that I want to share with you, in case you find yourself bored and in need of amusement.

• Skribbl.io – multiplayer pictionary that will put your artistic mouse skills to the test
• Language Guesser – if you are a fan of learning new languages and getting exposed to different music, then this is the one for you
• Geo Guessr – Google maps will drop you anywhere in the world and you have to use your surroundings to figure out where you are, this one is quite the challenge

What I’m Nervous For

I am extremely excited to start medical school, but with excitement also come nerves and fears. First, I wanted to share what I’m nervous about.

1. My Class Size – there are only 50 of us. I’m not sure how I feel about such a small class size. This can be a good thing because we will all get to know each other and be quite close as a cohort. On the other hand, what if you don’t get alone with 5 out of those 50 people? You then don’t have a crowd of 100-200 other students to hide behind. Your interactions become almost unavoidable.
2. The Amount of Information – everyone keeps saying that medical school is like drinking water out of a fire hydrant. I constantly sit and wonder, is it that bad? Are people overexaggerating? Well, I guess I can stress about it, or I can just let it be. I won’t know what medical school is like until I start medical school. I do know that biochemistry will probably be my worst enemy though.
3. Balance – will I be able to balance my time, my life, my relationships, my studies? Is this something I can manage? It’s overwhelming not knowing exactly what things will look like. Not knowing how online classes will impact my knowledge and skills. Not knowing how to plan a proper schedule or what will make me most efficient once I start, or how to even take notes properly.

What I’m Excited For

Now for the fun part. There are lots of things to be excited about.

1. Learning – I love to learn new things, especially medical information. I know that at first, we get a lot of content thrown at us, and a lot of basic sciences once again, but beyond that, I’m excited to learn about various diseases, and how everything can impact a patient. I’m thrilled to start looking at patient-based cases and using problem-solving and critical thinking to reach a diagnosis. When I’m learning new things, in any subject, my mind starts bouncing off the walls and I love it.
2. Meeting new people – I’m a social chameleon. I tend to adapt to my environment. I’m an introvert when I’m at home and an extrovert when I’m around people. I enjoy learning about people’s life stories and making everyone around me laugh. So, as you can assume I am thrilled to be meeting 49 other humans, becoming friends with them, and making connections.
3. Selectives – My institution has weeks off after every major block known as selectives. During these selectives, we can engage in almost any learning experience that we select. This is meant to be down-time to visit family, or time to volunteer, travel abroad to conduct research or anything your heart desires. I’m thankful for these selectives because they will allow me to direct my own learning experiences in creative ways.

My institution has already notified us that courses will proceed strictly online until at least the end of August 2020. Of course, I’m disappointed and bummed that orientation will have to be virtual, that I won’t get to meet all my classmates in person, or engage with my professors from day one. But this might also be a good way to adjust to medical school, take time to build disciplined habits, develop a workout routine, and focus on my wellness.

Just breathe. This might be a blessing in disguise.