I went to dinner last night with two of my favorite ladies in the world. One is the undisputed champion, the other is Erin. Erin and I met my first year at ut in gen chem 1. We were in the same discussion section so it was easy for us to study together for quizzes and tests, and since she lived on campus, we could study and/or hang out with ease. In the beginning, it was always me helping her. She would stay up all night studying the night before the test, I would go to bed early.

As time went on, my study habits tended to falter more and more; my absolute NEED for financial independece led me to carrying a full course load while working full time after school. My grades suffered and my social life took a hit. Jump ahead two years later. Erin gets accepted to pharmacy school, I do some soul searching and realize that maybe medical school isn't right for me. I decide maybe I'll work my way up the ladder via EMT school, go on to become a paramedic, then get into management. Yeah well that ship isn't sailing. Being an EMT can be very rewarding at times; it makes you realize that something as little as holding someones hand can make a world of difference. But I don't feel that chouffering people around town is going to keep me satisfied for the rest of my life. Neither is sitting at a desk. I want to make people better, not keep them alive.

Last night I was sitting at dinner with two of my favorites, talking to Erin about the struggles of pharmacy school and the like. Then the conversation came to me. What are my plans? I graduated ut with a 2.86 gpa in microbiology. My overall goal is to somehow get into pa school. Ever since I can remember, I've been periodically checking the statistics of PA school applicants, most of which have gpas of around 3.5, just to see what they look for. I told Erin about the obstacles I would have to overcome before I even thought of applying: retake classes, shadow doctors, volunteer. All of these things I would need to do to make me as similar as possible to the people who were getting in.

The next thing Erin said hit me like a bolt of lightning: "you know what you want. You've been working in the medical field the past four years. You've seen the different areas, you've tried other things. Now you know that that is what you want to do. That's what they look for." I realize now that I have something that most other people don't have: experience. I've got four years of patient contact experience. You can't put a price on that.

I will be taking my GRE exam within the next year. I've started to look for PAs to shadow. Through all of these years of my grades suffering due to the amount of hours I put in at various area hospitals, finally (hopefully) it will pay off.

Posted from my iPod