Forgiveness

So all weekend after my exam I was helping my brother move. He was treating me badly as usual, then on Sunday when we were finished I told him I was going to leave. He then got mad at me and I walked out. I texted him that I'm changing my number and I never want to talk to or see him again. I told my other family that I like about this, and they are a bit upset too. Apparently my brother is really sad about the whole thing.

The problem I have with forgiving him is that I fear he is just gonna go back to his old ways. I also feel that my life is much better without him in it. He has treated me poorly my whole life. But last night, part of me did miss him.

I don't know what to do.

Ouch

So I finished my final exam for FNH 200 today, but it was a really hard test! There was an entire section that if we got the answer wrong, we got -1 marks, for a total loss of two marks for every wrong answer, instead of 1.

I think I did horribly on this test. Although I couldn't pull 12 hour days, I did pull 6-8 hour days for a week straight. I thought this would've been enough, but nope. I can't stress it enough how hard the test was. I won't be surprised if I failed the test, in which case I may have failed the course. This is very disappointing since I got straight A's last semester. However, I talked to my cousin and he said to not let it get to me too much because it happens to everyone and he said I'm smart so not to worry about it.

I prepared more for this test than the midterm and I got 80 percent on the midterm, so I thought my mark would've been equal or better, but probably not.

Time to start my new courses and get over 90 in them to balance this one out!

Sept 2014 Classes and final exam studying

So I just finished registering in my courses for Sept 2014. Needless to say I am incredibly excited about the classes I'm in. I'm in 4 health science classes. The classes are:

-HSCI 1120 Introduction to Human Sexuality and Behaviour
-HSCI 1130 Foundations of Health Science
-HSCI 1160 Global Perspectives on Health
-HSCI 1180 Drugs and Society

The course descriptions for these classes seem super interesting and right up my alley. I think doing these health science courses will be excellent prep for medicine. I really can't wait.

Also, my final exam for FNH 200 is on Friday. I've been studying, but I'm still a bit worried. Although I did feel this way for the midterm and I managed to get 80 percent so who knows. I think I will feel more prepared by Wednesday. For the next 4 days I'm going to be pulling 10-12 hour days studying. Hopefully that will be enough.

Applying to Queens Medicine and going to my mom's house

If everything goes right for me, I will be applying to Queen's Medicine in mid July of 2016. This is 2 years and a month away. It feels like both a long time and a short time away. On the one hand, after I finish the 2014-15 year, I will only have 1 year to apply. On the other hand, it is still 2 years away. I still feel like I need to improve my EC's. I plan on doing hospital volunteering, physician shadowing, mental health volunteering,  basketball coaching, lets talk science, and being a member of several UBC clubs. I hope this is enough. And I hope 2 years is enough time to put into my EC's.

Words won't be able to describe how happy I'll be if I get into Queens in 2017. I doubt I will get in though because I'll only have 3 undergrad years, so I'll need to do really well on the MCAT. I'm still not sure if i should write the MCAT in the summer of 2015 or 2016, or both. One thing's for sure, I'll need  at least one year of good marks under my belt in order to justify spending thousands of dollars on MCAT materials. Also, I hope SN2ed of the SDN forums makes a study schedule for the 2015 MCAT. I read somewhere that he is going to.

Right now it is looking like I might only apply to Queens in 2016. I may apply to others but I am not sure yet. It depends on my gpa. If I did apply to others it would be all schools that I meet the requirements for, and also accept 3rd years. University of Calgary is potentially one school, and so is UBC. I still have to make a spreadsheet of every canadian school with it's requirements and then decide when and where I will apply. Hopefully I will do this soon.

In my FNH 200 course, I figured if I get 100 percent on everything remaining, I will get 92 in the course. This however is going to be very hard. It starts with a quiz I have to do this weekend.

This weekend I'm going back to Duncan on Vancouver island (my hometown) to see my good friend and also my mom. I'm only going for 2 days but I'm looking forward to it because I haven't seen my friend in a while. We always have fun together. I just wish he was pursuing medicine because I think he'd make an excellent doctor.

Spanish Banks in Point Grey

Today I went to Spanish Banks beach in Vancouver with my girlfriend. I had never been there before and I found out it is a really nice beach. There is a beautiful view of the north shore and downtown Vancouver from the beach. There is also a cool little concession stand, and people had volleyball nets set up and some people were barbequing, and of course some people were in the water. If you google "spanish banks" you can see for yourself how nice it is. I am not in the best shape of my life but I hope to be in really good shape in 1-2 months. I'm going to be doing interval running 3/4 times a week and jogging or riding the stationary bike 3 times a week. I am also watching my diet and eating healthy, except for 1 or 2 cheat days a week.

There are also some very nice houses near Spanish Banks and I believe it is a very desirable place to live. I believe it is in Point Grey, which has one of the highest median income levels in Vancouver. I would love to live in Point Grey when I'm older. Of course I'd have to be a doctor to afford it. I've always dreamed of having a wonderful home in Vancouver ever since I visited Vancouver as a young child. Point Grey is right by UBC, so if I was living in Point Grey, I might be working at UBC Hospital, or VGH which is a few minutes away, or St. Paul's Hospital which is downtown. Or I may work at a combination of the 3. Or I may have my own practice.

I am still not sure what specialty I want to go into. From my limited knowledge, I think I would want to be a cardiothoracic surgeon, possibly a pediatric cardiac surgeon. I know there are only two pediatric cardiac surgeons in the province of British Columbia. But I am not sure about things like lifestyle factors (work hours, shift work, vacation time etc.) and income levels of all the specialties. Income is important to me. Although I am becoming a physician because of the meaningful work and the work environment, I also value income because my family has never had money before. I do see myself living a higher lifestyle, but to me it's more about security than luxury. I want to be able to have opportunities in life like living comfortably in a major urban center, travelling and supporting others. Also it is nice to be rewarded for doing meaningful work.

Midterm Mark and Anybody know about any easy Thomspon Rivers University online/distance courses?

So I got my midterm mark back from my Food, Nutrition and Health 200 course and I got 80 percent on it. I am okay with this mark because going into the exam I did not feel prepared, but while I was writing my exam I felt I knew most of the questions. 80 percent at UBC is an A-, so overall it is a fairly good grade. In the grand scheme of things though, I should be getting in the 90s because UBC Medicine's average to get in is around 87 percent (with the worst year dropped). So I need to do really well. Similarly, it is going to be nearly impossible for me to get above 90 (an A+) in the course because of the marks I've already received. I would have to get almost 100 percent on the final and on all the quizes and assignments.

Also my final exam for FNH 200 has been scheduled and it is on June 27th. I am going to start studying for this exam this weekend and continue through until the day before or the day of the exam. I am trying to get above 95 percent.

Also I need to register in a Thompson Rivers University online class. I am not quite sure about which course to take. If anyone has taken any courses at Thompson Rivers University and found them to be fairly easy and/or fairly easy to achieve a high mark, then please comment below with the course title and number if you can remember it. I am thinking about taking a math class, or a chemistry class, or a social work class, but I am not sure which one I will do yet.

Respiratory Therapy

So I applied to Respiratory therapy at Thompson Rivers University and I found out I got in! I was very surprised since they take university grades into account. They also take high school into account so maybe that was what helped me get in. The problem with this program is that it has to be done on site in Kamloops British Columbia, at Thompson Rivers University. Kamloops is about 4-7 hours away from Vancouver by car (I am just guessing here) and I really do not want to move there. I love everything about Vancouver, including the schools here. If this program was in Vancouver, I would probably do it. But since it's not, I'm going to have to decline. It is tempting though because they make anywhere from 27-33 dollars an hour here in BC. I may revisit Respiratory therapy in the future as a backup plan. Even if I did it I would only work until I got into medical school. I would never do it as a permanent job. Right now it is one of my lowest backup plans.

I don't place much stock into my backup plans simply because I want to succeed in my main goal of medicine and nothing else. I really wouldn't be happy doing anything aside from medicine. However due to limited funds, I may have to pursue a temporary career to support my university studies in order to get into medicine.

Right now, my main backups are Respiratory therapy, pharmacy, master's/phd programs (professor or research or both), perfusion, pharmacy tech, and I believe that is all I can think of right now. Hopefully I get into medicine after 1-3 years of applying and I don't have to worry about any of these backup careers.