Things I wish I knew...

I found this in the blog iReason, M.D.

Things I wish I knew before starting medical school:

(I've pulled out the ones that are particularly interesting to me, but feel free to visit the full list by clicking on the link above)

1. Rankings don’t really matter unless you’re very serious about research
7. More about health-care politics
9. Getting into med school is not the end-goal; it’s just the beginning.
10. How much material was really coming my way
12. How much drama there’ll be in the class!
13. Discipline to exercise regularly and eat a balanced diet
14. How to spend money and time more efficiently
15. How people’s perception of you change once they know you’re a medical student
16. How disturbed and sad I’d feel, looking at pictures in lecture, of individuals suffering from various diseases
18. How professors treat you as though you’re their colleagues, rather than upholding the barrier between teacher and student (a pleasant surprise)
19. How useful my iPhone would be!
20. How creative I would need to become to mentally store and organize information
23. How much money I’d spend on Jamba Juice
24. How people’s personalities change under heavy stress
25. How sleeping at least 6 hours per night is important to maintain focus the following day (unlike college, where I could get away with 4-5 hours a night).

So I started thinking:

• Am I serious about research? Nah
• I need to stay informed when it comes to health care politics - I should ask Matt to forward me articles, he's the king of forwarding articles
• What drama!? Ugh, really?
• I should ask Matt to encourage me to exercise. And to make me well balanced dinners :)
• I'm pretty sure I don't have a choice but to spend money efficiently - everyone should marry a financial analyst that rocks at Excel and requires each dollar spent to be categorized and graphed
• I like to think I'm already pretty good at spending time efficiently, but I'm afraid I'll be in for a rude awakening
• I hope people's perception of me don't change in a negative way...
• I need to get an iPhone... I don't know why, but it will apparently be VERY useful
• I've never had Jamba Juice! I guess I can replace that with "coffee bar"?
• If my personality starts to change negatively, I would be grateful if my family and friends would let me know, in the nicest way possible
• I'm actually really worried about the only sleeping 6 hours per night thing... I need AT LEAST 7 or 8! I should ask Matt to send me to bed by 11pm each night
• I'm very lucky to have such a supportive husband to keep my life together for me :)

The above list seems somewhat helpful and at least fun to read. The other option was the 101 Things You Wish You Knew Before Starting Medical School from the blog medschoolhell, which I clearly am avoiding!