During my 3rd year of medical school, I kind of lost myself. I think it even started after the first two terms of medical school, so after the first year. All of my energy went into surviving (and actually doing well), during my basic sciences years. I wanted to do very well, and not just pass my exams but even to just pass the exams, one had to work very hard unless they were a naturally born genius.

Due to that desire and need, I sacrificed a lot. I felt that it was a small sacrifice to make, to achieve the goals I wanted in life; to become a doctor. So I stopped going to the gym regularly, and that eventually diminished to not going to the gym at all. During my 3rd year, because the clinical years are a whole new chapter of their own from the whole book that is called medical school, I had to readjust my studying methods and also refocus on “impressing” the doctors around me. Not only was I being evaluated on my test taking capabilities via the NBMEs but also on my ward pimping abilities (impressing the doctors with my basic knowledge of their individual specialties). With that, there was basically two different areas that you are graded on; the clinical clerkship which is a subjective grading, and the NBMEs (national board of medical examinations), which is obviously objective.

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