Why being a Pre-med is awesome
Let’s get this out of the way. Being a pre-med is HARD. You have to stay up late studying for exams, you have the pressure of making straight A’s, you have the MCAT to prepare for, you are encouraged to do research and shadow a physician, and then you have to fit volunteering into what little free time you have left. And you do all of this without even the certainty that you will get accepted to medical school. But it is exactly this which makes being a pre-med awesome in its own right and why you should feel proud. In this post I want to focus on all the reasons that being a pre-med is awesome and hopefully, help motivate you all to keep up the great work you have been doing thus far and enjoy the process of being a pre-med no matter how hard it gets. Being pre-med is not easy but it is definitely worth it. Here are some reasons you should appreciate being a pre-med!
Being pre-med helps you grow as a person:
The main reason being a pre-med is awesome is because of how much you grow and develop as a person. The process of being a pre-med indirectly builds you into a person who has all the skills to succeed as a doctor. In my opinion, being a pre-med is a necessary step to prepare you to handle the life of a doctor. As a pre-med, you will be pushed beyond your limits in how hard you have to study, in discipline, in time management, and in so many other ways. The very difficult nature of being a pre-med builds character.
The only way we grow as people is through challenges. And being a pre-med is most certainly challenging! While most other students are out relaxing and going to parties, a good pre-med is staying at home studying. Instead of going to that concert everyone else is going to, you instead are going to volunteer or shadow. Sacrifice is the name of the game. And that sacrifice will definitely pay off as you mature into a person who will one day become a fantastic doctor.
The skills you learn as a pre-med are transferable to the rest of your life:
This goes with the previous point but all of the skills you obtain as a pre-med transfer over to your personal life as well. As a result of your hard work as a pre-med, you will also notice improved discipline, time management, and work ethics in your personal life. Apart from developing character, you also gain valuable knowledge from your studies that can be applied to your life. Although ironically as pre-meds we learn about the importance of sleep, then we never have time to maintain a good sleep schedule ourselves! For me, studying for the MCAT helped to develop work ethics and discipline unlike anything else! I had to maintain a very strict schedule studying for it and after I finished the MCAT, that discipline stuck with me! Spending years as a pre-med truly does help develop personal responsibility like nothing else.
Discover things you would never have realized you liked:
Being a pre-med gives you the opportunity to discover things you would have never realized that you liked so much. These could be things such as volunteering, research, tutoring, specific courses/subjects (biology, chemistry, etc.), running a club/organization, etc. For me, it was all the above! I never realized how much fun volunteering is until I went out to do it. The feeling of helping others, while also doing something new is amazing. If it wasn’t for being a pre-med, I would have never become a tutor at my school and have the joy of helping my classmates. As a pre-med, I took many classes that I never knew I wanted to learn about! I was surprised to find how interested I was in courses like genetics, organic chemistry, and even biochemistry. There are so many things that I love now and it’s all because of being a pre-med. I’m sure you will find many things that you love too as a pre-med!
It’s a journey:
Being a pre-med is a journey. From when you first start as a freshman to when you finally apply to medical school, the whole process is a rollercoaster of emotions. It has its ups and downs, and moments of triumph and defeat: the early morning exams and the long grueling waits to find out what your grade is, spending what feels like your whole evening in a research lab, meeting up with friends to prepare for that organic chemistry exam, the first time you shadow a physician in the hospital, when you make an “A” in a class you didn’t think you would. During this long and crazy journey as a pre-med, you will make new friends, discover new things you love, and develop into fabulous young adults. Being a pre-med is definitely a journey and it is one you will be thankful you had.
I know as a pre-med you have a lot to focus on right now, but take a second to appreciate how far you have already come and how much you have grown. Think about all of the friends and people you have met because of being a pre-med. Yes, being a pre-med is hard! But it is so so worth it. That is exactly why the journey of being a pre-med is so transforming and meaningful. Whatever you do, make sure to give it you’re all! You don’t want to have any regrets. Be proud of all the hard work you are doing and know that you are bettering your life because of it. The goals that are difficult are the ones most worth achieving. If it was so easy then everyone would be doing it. Being a pre-med is awesome and you will be a better person because of it. So be proud and be the best pre-med you can!
