Random Thoughts
If I ran a medical school, this is how I would do admissions
There is a ton of diversity across Canada (let alone the world) when it comes to medical school admissions processes. The following is what I would do if I ran a medical school. If there are any medical school admissions committees seeking advice, you know how to reach me . GPA / MCAT I’ve said [...]
May to May – a year in the pursuit of happiness
Sometimes people ask me what my goals are in life, to which I answer, “To be happy.” I know it’s a cheap answer because it lets me avoid saying anything concrete and specific. The real truth is that I don’t know exactly what I want in life. I know I want to be happy, and [...]
Appreciation, Niceness, and Generosity – Why Being Kind is Best
Last night I was at dinner with a couple of friends. A good friend of mine from class was sitting across from me, and at one point, the topic of generosity came up. The discussion helped elucidate a concept that I’ve always believed, but never really put onto paper, so I guess now is a [...]
Hidden Luck
Luck, variance, randomness – whatever you want to call it, it has an undeniable influence on the course of events. Taking a simple case, you get lucky when your medical school interview is conducted by a physician who turns out to be life long buddies with one of your referees, or perhaps you get unlucky [...]
The Fear of Failure and Why You Need to Stop Being Afraid to Lose
I think far too often in too many things we focus on just one side of the coin. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be counter productive if you’re looking at the side that prevents you from succeeding, and succeeding big. While I don’t have any specific role models that I [...]
Having an Open Identity, Friendships
Open vs. Anonymous? One of the things I thought about when I started this blog was whether I should be open about who I am, or whether I should be anonymous. Of course there are pros and cons to being open about my identity. The pros of being open is that people who know me [...]
Reflection on 1st Week of Medical School
I woke up at 7:50am on this beautiful Saturday morning after sleeping at 2am. I was exhausted from the entire first week of medical school, and I was looking forward to finally sleeping in. Of course, my biological clock is apparently broken now, and I woke up around the same time I normally would to [...]
Why You Need to Think Critically about Advice and Who You Get it From
Sometimes I read advice online for medical school admissions from medical students that I think is fundamentally wrong. Of course this would seem counter-intuitive – how could someone be wrong about advice if they got in? Consider a game of rock, paper, scissors (yah yah, how many times have I used this example now?). Imagine [...]
Medical School Admissions: Pointless Complaining
Pointless complaining is something that we are all guilty of at one point or another. When we get frustrated or upset about things outside of our control, we often end up making it personal, and just vent and whine. Human beings are selfish by nature. We do things that makes us happy and avoid things [...]
The Meaning of Life vs. a Meaningful Life
I don’t claim to know the meaning of life because I don’t know whether such a thing exists, and even if it does, I don’t know how one could discover it. Every type of opinion on the meaning of life is essentially a belief – an idea that you might live your life around but [...]
MedHopeful @ Premed101