A decision has been made!

After months of anxiety while I waited for an acceptance, I finally got in. And to my dismay, I got into multiple schools. Don’t get me wrong, that was a blessing, but a new type of stress came on. Now I had to choose among those schools and find out which one was the best fit for me. Finally, after months of prayer and thought, I’ve made my decision. My educational resume will now look like this:

Nordonia Hills City Schools—Northfield, OH

St. Edward High School—Lakewood, OH

Calvin College—Grand Rapids, MI

and now...

The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine—Cincinnati, OH

Keep on going

I'm a pretty self-motivated person, but boy is it hard to keep going. It's senior year, I've been accepted to med school, and classes aren't that hard...but there's work to be done. Sometimes I get worried and think that I'm just losing all my discipline and work ethic and that won't make it through med school. Thankfully I have some great friends who slap me in the face (figuratively of course)  and remind me that its good ol' senioritis kicking in. You would hope a future doc could diagnosis that, right? (On a side note, senioritis doesn't really make sense."-itis" means "inflammation of," so in that case senioritis means inflammation of a senior....weird.)

The next two weeks are looking pretty good. I don't have much due this week and we are off on Friday for Good Friday so Annie and I are headed to Cleveland for Easter. Next week we don't have classes Tuesday and Wednesday and the following weekend we will be headed to Cincinnati for a Second Look event at UC and to see Annie's family. After that there's only two weeks left and then finals....crazy! 

I love Calvin, don't get me wrong, but I'm ready to move on. 

Verge

I would like to start this off by saying I feel very cocky posting what I am about to post. I promise, the following link is relevant to my journey in becoming a doc. After I won the AspiringDocs video contest last year, my college did a short news video on me (every week they cover stories of different students throughout campus and I was just one of the lucky ones to get chosen). More recently, Calvin decided to make a magazine called Verge for high school seniors who are "on the verge" of coming to Calvin, clever huh? They wanted to make it fun and artsy and not to "Calvin-y." Well anyway, they wrote the cover story about my Calvin experience and the path along which God has taken me. They are both posted on the Verge website:

Calvin College Verge: The DNA of a Good Doctor

Again, I don't mean to come off self-centered by posting this. My hope is that you can get a better idea of my story from these than you may have from my poorly written blog posts. Thanks for checking this out!

You do what you have to do

It is an amazingly beautiful day today. Just a few days ago it was raining and cold, now its 80 degrees and sunny! And what am I doing? I'm sitting in Starbucks reading about triacylglycerol synthesis...fun. As I was reading I looked outside and saw all these people walking/running/biking and enjoying the day and I asked myself, "why am I doing this? Its gorgeous out and I'm sitting inside studying." To make it even harder, I probably could get away with not doing my work for today; I'm doing fine in my classes, I've been accepted into med school, and I'm almost done with college. Yet I keep going. And to be honest, I don't know why. I guess this is how I am wired; I love to learn and I want to be the best at what I do. I just keep telling myself that in a week/month/year, I wont remember how nice of a day it was. My hope is, however, that I'll know and remember this science stuff though. And so I head back to my biochemistry book and let the beautiful day pass on by.

Video Contest

If you know me at all, you know I'm an "all-or-nothing kind" of guy. Two summers ago (2009) when I decided I would go into medicine, I was doing some  research to get more involved (read "I was going all out"). One day I came across the AAMC's AspiringDocs page, a group that works to increasing diversity in the medical field, and noticed there was a video contest going on. What would I have to do? I would need to submit a 2-minute video answering the question "what motivates you to increase diversity in medicine?"... within two weeks! I knew a ton of people would submit videos, but I figured it was worth a shot. That's how how this video was made:

What motivates me to increase diversity in medicine

And somehow I won! I was 1 of 10 winners (out of... actually, I have no idea...maybe it was just out of 11 people, wouldn't that be funny?). In deciding what to talk about, I was intentional about not limiting my answer to only racial and ethnic diversity. Coming from a middle-class socioeconomic family and a being the first in my family to go to college, I have seen how diversity wears many faces. I really enjoyed making the video because in sharing my motivations with others, I was better able to articulate my passion for medicine. As I prepared the video, I saw how deep my passion for diversity in medicine really is.

There were also some nice "perks." I was given an MCAT study guide, a big book full of all the med school entrance requirements (which came in handy), a dorky AspringDocs tote bag, and a nice monetary gift that essentially paid for both of my MCATs. I feel blessed to have won and am very grateful! Oh, and before I sign out I'd like to give a BIG shout out to Brad Jansen, who offered his time and patience filming and editing this video for me. Actually, that's probably why I won...thanks Brad!

Movement

I'm out of purgatory! I'm officially on the alternate list at Case...hey, movement is movement. So on the table we have Oakland and Cincy, with Loyola and Case in the background (since I'm only on their alternate lists at this point). I honestly believe I'd be happy at any of them. Time will tell...

Options

Alright, so I’m done with what might have been the “boring information” stuff. It may not have been super interesting to read, but I personally think it’s important to share the process I’ve had to go through to get where I am. And through the whole process, the hard work has paid off. I’ve interviewed at six of the eighteen schools I applied to, been accepted to four, wait-listed at one, and placed in this odd “purgatory” at one.

When I got my first acceptance, it was surreal. They called me and I honestly couldn’t believe it was true. I don’t mean to sound egotistic, but I’ve  always done well throughout school (so when I get a good grade or something, I kind of expected it for myself and it doesn’t really hit me). Yet knowing how hard it is to get into medical school, I was speechless when I found out I had been accepted. It was quite funny too. There I was, excited beyond belief, and all the people I wanted to tell immediately (my mom, dad, girlfriend…) didn’t answer their phones! They were there for me through the thick and the thin and put up with me when I was grumpy/tired/exhausted, yet they were nowhere to be found when the news came in J

I’ve currently narrowed my acceptances down to Oakland University William Beaumont SOM (in Rochester, MI) and the University of Cincinnati COM. Now I know I shouldn’t complain, I’m in a good boat considering I have options, but I’m at a standstill. To be honest, I truly believe I would be equally happy at either school. The biggest draw for UC is the support network Annie and I would have (between my family 3 hours north and her family right there). Med school is going to be rough and many of my mentors have told me that during those times, you can’t underestimate family. UC is also ranked #3 of all med schools for pediatrics! On the other hand, OUWB is a new program; I’d be a member of their inaugural class. While that initially caused some hesitation, I’m very confident in the administration and faculty and like what I see. I just went to their Second Look weekend and feel much more educated and informed about what OUWB will look like next year. Sure there’s some risk in going with a new program, but there is also the opportunity to be a part of something new. I like the idea of making a name for myself, being innovative, and setting a tone for the type of students we will be. In a few weeks I’m heading down to UC for their Second Look day, which will be super helpful. OUWB and UC were my first two interviews, so I had forgotten a lot about what they offer. UC has also made some curricular changes, so I’m excited to hear what they have to offer.

Where do you think I should go? haha Feel free to vote via commenting on this post! I have some time though…students can hold multiple acceptances until May 15. On May 15, however, you must choose your school. Keep in touch and please be praying. We will see what He has planned…