Author: Jsoze
Do’s and Dont’s of Medical School
Coming into medical school, I didn’t know much of anything aside from hearing that the journey would be incredibly hard and I’d spend a lot of time crooned over my Macbook studying. I had no mentor. No older friend in med school to pester with questions. Before arriving, I drank a lot of beer with my friends, bartended, and went in with no advice or guidance, forcing myself to learn many lessons along the way. While I can’t go back in time to last year and tell myself what I know now, I can write an article that hopefully some incoming first year students will read and learn from.
Not all of this advice comes from my personal experience – some comes from witnessing my classmates make mistakes as well. Also, I ain’t gonna give study tips, but rather I’ll give advice on general life and how to conduct yourself, a seemingly overlooked aspect of your years in med school.
Live in the Moment: My Love For Live Music & Favorite Shows of All Time
Since graduating high school, live music has been an essential part of my livelihood. Just the other night, in a very inebriated state at three in the morning, my friend and I went back to my house and ran downstairs to plug in my guitar for some late night drunken jamming. We traded on and off, playing riffs back and forth. I probably sounded awful. While my friend played, I sat there mesmerized as he simply strummed a couple simple chords. It doesn’t need to be complex. There’s something about hearing those tones swoon out of my semi-hollowbody electric guitar, through the amplifier and into my eardrums that sends a shiver through my limbic system.
Live music can be found anywhere. Whether I’m buzzing from a few beers at a local bar and hearing a couple kids play an open mic set to fifteen people or watching a legendary rocker electrify a sold-out arena, live music in all forms, like humor, is a universally connecting human experience. There aren’t many other places in the world where you can have a frat guy on your right, and a bonafide hippie on your left, both sharing the same joy.
Soze’s Movie Reviews: Volume I
Last night was a quiet, warm summer evening. I worked out, grilled some burgers, and relaxed with a movie. As I stated in my last post, this is the last free summer of my life before becoming a slave to my Step 1 score, the ensuing clinical rotations, residency, a career, retirement, then death. After working extremely hard this past year and devoting so much time to school, I’ve decided that I can be completely lazy, lounge around, without a care in the world, freed from any sort of guilt that might accompany lying on your couch and watching movies all afternoon.
So, aside from lifting, working on my tan, reading books, watching a few Sketchy Videos, doing weird things at music festivals, getting drunk with my friends, working on medical research, and bartending once in a while, I’ve been nurturing my inner cinephile by checking out an array of different movies every week to fill the void between Twin Peaks episodes.
I enjoy putting my thoughts and opinions on music and movies into word format, but I don’t have the time to write an entire post reviewing each movie, nor do I have the energy to write that much on most movies without being redundant. While I could easily churn out 10,000 words dissecting Mulholland Drive, ain’t nobody got time for that. So, I came up with the idea to write short reviews on the last few movies I’ve watched, while assigning a numerical value from 1-10. There is no rhyme or reason behind my rating system. Just here to give my honest take on recent movies I’ve watched, and hopefully give ya’ll some good recommendations.
Protected: Bonnaroo, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down
5 Ways To Become More Successful In Med School
I was already drunk when the dean called me telling me I was accepted to medical school. Then I got more drunk. Then I arrived at school and had no clue what was going on.
Throughout my first year of medical school, I slowly but surely started to understand what was going on, which was pretty great. Went from average to mildly-above-average to top of the class. So, I will share what I learned throughout the way for your reading pleasure. Through trial and error, I learned to maximize my efficiency – I learned how to study smarter, I discovered ways to become a happier person, and my love-hate relationship with med school tilted heavily to the former by the end of M1.
If you’re an incoming medical student, or a second year in search of refining his/her methods, or simply a wonderful human being reading my site because you’re one of the 7 people on earth who can tolerate my musings on music, read below for some advice on becoming a more productive and healthier human being.
The Surgeon
A friend of mine. A brother, a father, a son, a licensed physician. A man who never takes himself too seriously, a man who is always making a joke, and always bringing positivity into every room he steps into. He seems at peace. He lives a nice life. He has a nice home and car. His nonchalant demeanor and light-hearted attitude make it hard to believe that he could have ever been anything other than what he is now. Through my experiences with him, I imagined he had always been this jovial and care-free human being, taking life day-by-day, devoting his time to his hobbies, as well as seeing the occasional patient.
But before, he was known as the surgeon.
Soze’s Favorite Movie Scenes (Part I)
When I’m not studying, perusing random crevices of the internet, or listening to music, I love to unwind and watch a movie. Who doesn’t?
Like music, motion pictures have always been a strong passion of mine. I vividly remember the wondrous awe and giddy expectation of walking into the Star Wars prequels as a young boy. When I was fifteen, I’d sometimes ignore my friends’ invites to bonfires or hangouts to stay at home and tear through Quentin Tarantino’s filmography in my basement. Call me old-fashioned or lame, but when I started dating my favorite PG (occasionally PG-13) thing to do with a girl was to pick her up and take her to the local cinema to enjoy a new movie on the big screen. Something about the red curtains, the smell of popcorn, the previews, and the feature film evokes a strange nostalgia in me, like revisiting a childhood home.
Throughout my development, my tastes shifted from Pixar, Lord of the Rings, and Adam Sandler flicks towards a more refined taste (I almost want to throw up saying this) which accompanied my deeper understanding and appreciation of the art.
Med School Memoirs: Hola Señorita, Hable No Spanish
Most medical students are defined and characterized by type A personalities – the people who sat in the front of the classroom in college and pestered the teacher with useless questions (and God knows how many annoying emails).
They, and I suppose by association, we, continuously strive for perfection. The application had to be perfect. Medical students went through college with relatively pristine GPAs, took a Kaplan course to get a high MCAT score, participated in various research projects on shit they weren’t interested in, volunteered handing out water bottles, saving kittens from trees, and other shit like that. All so that they could one day adopt the idealized prestige of the title, doctor. Perfection is the goal of all medical students.
I am no such person. Calling me imperfect would be an understatement – while I display academic success, I am prone to doing some incredibly stupid things. You win some, you lose some.
Med School Memoirs: The Most Interesting Doctor Alive?
Recovering from a respiratory infection and three days before an exam, shadowing a doctor for one of my required clinical experiences was the last thing I wanted to do.
Per protocol, I called the doctor a day in advance to confirm our plans. Usually I was calling a receptionist at the office who would instruct me to report to the facility at a certain time and hang up the phone. When I dialed the contact number of this physician, I was greeted with, “Hello, Dr. S”. A little taken aback to be reaching the doctor’s personal number, I said, “Hello, Dr. S. I’m student doctor Soze. I’m calling to confirm my scheduled Clinical Experience with you tomorrow afternoon”. Expecting a quick “okay, great, 1pm 555 State Street”, Dr. S engaged me in conversation, asked me how my day was, and ended the talk by giving me his cell phone number, instructing me to text him my name and email. I texted him and later that night he replied, “Hey Soze, busy night here at the office. We’re running late. I’m going to send you an email as soon as I’m home! Email me outlining your personal goals, what you hope to learn from our experience, and tell me a little bit about yourself”.
I found this a bit strange and over-the-top, but I emailed him. Later that night, he replied with several paragraphs, detailing his numerous awards, his life story, with his CV attached as well as documentation of “best physician instructor of the year award”. Fucking great. I’m sick, I have to study for an exam, I just want to go in, do my time and go home, but I’ve got to work with Dr. Enthusiasm for a day, who would undoubtedly be expecting a lot from me.
Soze Media 