Dont lose hope. my story

[Chubby]

I finally got the acceptance letter from one of the med school yesterday. For me, it has been a long and ardous journey, 10 yrs to be exact since the first time that I applied to a med school. Along the way, I am blessed with encouragements from friends, colleagues, people from this forum, for that, I can't thank them enough. I want to take this opportunity to share my story and to encourage those who has been trying for the past several years to not giving up your dream.

 

First time I applied to med school was back in 2000, when most of the "traditional" applicants were still in either elementary school / Juniour high. I didn't get any interview invites from any of the schools that I applied to; however, it wasn't much a surprise, given my marks weren't competitive enough. I applied once again in 2001 with similar result. Then I decided to do a MSc. degree, hoping that this would help to strenghten my application in the future. After 2 yrs hiatus from the application cycle, I applied to both med and dent in 2003. I only got as far as receiving interviews from UWO and UT dentistry that year. I went back to Taiwan to work as a research assistant for a while. At that time, I started to really worry about my future.

I was lucky enough to be accepted into UBC Dent the next year. At that time, I was just happy to land a career with good income and a rather prestigeous title, irregardless whether it would be a career that I would truly enjoy in doing. Naive at that point, it took me 2 years to come to realization that something is not right. At 2007, I found that dentistry and I were just not compatible. The combined curriculum offered at UBC further strengthened my desire in wanting to pursue medicine.

 

Dropping out from dentistry wasn't an easy choice, especially when your asian parents considered to disown you and wanted to choke you to death for exchanging a great career with more uncertainty. Or when some of your friends started doubting you and think you are being unrealistic about the whole medical school thing. Strains on the relationship with the love one was also significant. At that point, life seems to spiralling downward out of control faster than I can handle. However, thanks for the support from my dentistry friends and other long-time friends, I was able to gather myself up and focus on what I have to do.

 

I applied to med again in 2007 while working as a research assistant, that year, I received my first ever medical school interview. Having high hope for myself that year, I was devastated when I was rejected post-interview. However, since I have always wanted to work in healthcare-related field, that same year, I also applied to pharmacy, and was fortunate enough to be accepted into the pharmacy program in Toronto. I came to acceptance at that point, if I can never get accepted into medicine, at least, I would be happy to work as a pharmacist as a career. I continued to apply to med while studying in pharmacy; however, I kept receiving the same rejections letters year after year. It just seemed that I am not the right fit for any of the medical school that I interviewed with. This past year was supposedly my very last year in applying for medical school admission. It just comes to the point that I lost all the hope of ever getting into medicine, and getting tired from the whole application process. The whole motivation and desire are just not here anymore. But fortunately, I am finally able to accomplish what I set out to do 10 years ago.

 

I know it is never easy in getting rejection letters, I have all sorts from different medical schools across Canada. However, you just cant lose hope and lose sight on what you want to accomplish when you first started on this journey. If you think medicine is right for you and you will be a great physician, then you just have to work hard and make yourself a better candidate for people to see. Most importantly, you have to believe in yourself. There will always be naysayers out there who try to sway your confidence; however, be grateful for the comments they make, and use those as the motivations to reach your goal. Best of luck to those who are in the same boat as I once was. Dont ever lose hope. Keep the faith.

[MD2015]

Paste your post into the Sticky Thread above "Success Stories - non-trad style"

 

Great story. Motivating. Best of luck!

[Chubby]

Thanks John, added it to the sticky

[Slashsev01]

congrats!

 

what were ur stats?