first post

when i was volunteering at the salvation army good samaritan medical clinic this monday, a very old, retired nurse asked me, "so how is your job as an emt?"

i was an emt (mit-ems!!) in college, which is how i came to be doing nursing assessments at the local free clinic. now, though, i work as a research technician in a molecular neuroscience lab.

i explained to her that i now work in research, and then almost as an afterthought, i added that i would be going to medical school this fall. she promptly replied, "i have never had a desire to be a doctor." then she explained that doctors were too far removed from the patient. she wanted to take care of patients. i smiled, but inside i was aghast. man, i just want to get away from the lab bench! basic science research--talk about far removed from the patient.

and next year, i will most definitely leave the lab bench! this morning i just mailed a $100 check to university of minnesota medical school. they call it an "acceptance deposit", which must be paid within two weeks of the acceptance letter and is "non-refundable after may 15, 2008." does that mean it IS refundable before then? nowhere does it explain how i can get that money back should i decide to go to another school. (also, nowhere in the packet of materials i recieved with my acceptance letter does it specify the "pay to the order of" for that check.)

confusion aside, with my first (well maybe only) medical school acceptance, i feel i am finally moving in a forward direction post mit graduation. it has been a long year and a half since my undergraduate graduation. this purgatory that is the time between undergrad and grad school has been filled with frustrating biomedical research, living at home with my parents and little brother, and hundreds of hours working on applications in coffee shops. in an email, an MD friend, upon hearing of my acceptance, wrote, "welcome to the game!" after going through a year of the med school application process, i do feel that this career choice is (unfortunately) a game. as i accept my first acceptance, i feel very excited to be going back to school, but i also wonder HOW MANY ASIAN DRAMAS CAN I WATCH BEFORE I BEGIN MED SCHOOL?!

and so for the next six months, i will earnestly watch asian dramas, discover more chinese music i like, write my own dramas based on the lives of my friends, and blog about how i wish i live in taiwan (instead of dreary minnesota). med school here i come!!