Tear it up!

In case you missed church yesterday or your devotional this morning, let me remind you of a story/miracle in the Bible. One day, Jesus was preaching in Capernaum and there were so many people there to hear him that there was no space left in the room or outside the door where He was. Four men had brought their paralyzed friend in hopes that Jesus would heal him, but they couldn’t get in or near Him. So, these men climbed onto the roof with their paralyzed friend, dug a hole in the roof, and lowered their friend down to Jesus. Spoiler: Jesus forgave the man of his sins, the man was healed, and he took up his mat and walked out. [Mark 2: 1-12] There is a lot to take from this story, but one big point is that these men literally carried their friend up on the roof and tore the roof off the building in order to get him to Jesus so he could be healed. 

I’ve heard my pastor recount this story often and he always ends it with a charge to the congregation of something like, If anything keeps you from getting to Jesus, tear it up!

This past Saturday, I got to do one of my favorite things– chat with a Black pre-med student about her pre-med journey and future as a physician. As usual, the conversation turned to that of how to deal with distractions as a pre-med. I say “as usual” because these distractions are real and at one point or another, everyone faces them. How you deal with these distractions will greatly impact your pre-med journey. So with that in mind, and borrowing from my pastor, I submit to you that, If anything keeps you from getting to your white coat, tear it up!

There are lots of things that can present as distractions and get in the way of you being your best and the strongest medical school applicant possible. Some may be deep down within you, some you can literally reach out and touch. 

People

Yes, the people in our lives can keep us from our white coat. Whether it’s your roommate who blasts Megan for everyone within 5 miles to hear while you’re trying to study, or “friends” who make you feel bad for not being able to go out every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night (the stamina of college students is amazing), or boyfriends/girlfriends who are not supportive or who need more than you (or any normal person) is able to give them.

My suggestion would be to let these people know what your goals are and how they can help you reach them; and how they may be keeping you from reaching them. Then you watch to see if they change. If they do, great, keep them around; if they don’t, and certainly if they make you feel bad for bringing it up, those are the relationships you need to tear up…or at least step away from while you focus on what you need to do.

Self-doubt

You can keep yourself from your white coat with feelings of inadequacy or not thinking you’re good enough to get into medical school. It’s so much easier to say than it will be to do, but this one you’ve got to tear up, throw in the trash, and then set the whole trash bag on fire. As I’ve said before, if being a physician is the only career you think about and you’re working as hard as you can, you’ll get there. Yes, the coursework and requirements may be tough, but you not believing in yourself makes everything much tougher. Please don’t do that!

Poor grades

Poor grades and test scores can certainly keep you from your white coat. Now you can’t just tear up your scores and “poof” they no longer exist…Nah, to fix this one, you’ve got to tear up something within yourself. That may be procrastination, lack of planning, not studying enough, not getting extra help when/if you need it, etc. Many things that you have control over… Maybe you need to start planning your day/week better so that you’re not wasting time? Maybe you need to find an accountability partner for studying? Maybe you need to get a tutor or be in your professors’ office hours?  If your grades aren’t where they need to be, plan to make some serious changes in the next semester.

Do you have thoughts on other things that can keep you from your white coat? Feel free to leave them in the comments below, send them to me as an email if you want to discuss them, or just make a plan to tear them up!