Sophomore Year: Work Hard, Play Hard
The initial excitement and glamor of college was behind me; I had much bigger goals for myself than just partying hard for three more years. I was still going to have fun, but not at the expense of my schoolwork. I promised myself that I would be mature, prioritizing my time with the primary focus set on classes. I also made a personal goal to elevate my GPA from an unimpressive 3.4 to at least a 3.7 by the end of junior year, the time that I would be applying to medical schools (something you may not know: if you are a traditional applicant and not taking any time off between college and medical school, you will apply during the summer between your junior and senior year, meaning that when you send in your apps only your GPA for the first three years will be seen by med schools; so work extra hard in those three years!!). Setting that goal was definitely easier than accomplishing it. But such is the case with any meaningful milestone. I had two years, and I was going to do it.
My sophomore year started off with a bang. I was actually attending all my classes, paying attention and taking notes rather than just relying on memory. I studied the necessary amount for even elective classes, and did well on all the quizzes and tests. Organic Chemistry is the big monster that pre-meds fear during sophomore year, but I just looked at it as another challenge on my way to success. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish by simply changing your mindset. Once you start actively pursuing your goals, all the other pieces fall in place. Ochem is certainly no cakewalk, but it isn’t unmanageable either. In a way it’s the exact opposite of Biology. Whereas in Bio you spend a lot of time memorizing pathways, processes, functions, and never-ending details, in Ochem you must understand the core principles that govern all reactions, and apply these to situations you may have never encountered before. It is problem solving at its finest, and I really began to appreciate how everything fit together almost like a puzzle. The first semester of sophomore year ended, and I finished with four “As” and one “B” in Ochem. I was proud of myself, and ready to repeat my performance.
That first semester went very well academically and otherwise. I continued training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and worked out constantly, which I found to be the best study break possible. I also took advantage of the resources offered by AED (the campus pre-med organization), something I didn’t even bother to consider as a freshman. One of the most beneficial things AED did was set up observations for students with different doctors in the Fort Worth area. If this is offered at your school, I highly advise taking full advantage of it. This allows you to spend a full day with a doctor and see his/her practice, follow them around the hospital, and get a feel for different specialties. I observed two doctors, a Plastic Surgeon and an Emergency Medicine physician. It basically provided me with further insight, and I was able to see some cool procedures for the first time. And let’s not forget, it’s another thing to add to that med school application!
Second semester went just like the first in terms of classes, with four “As” and a “B” in Ochem, and my cumulative GPA at the end of sophomore year rose to a 3.579. Two classes that I took this semester really stuck out more than the rest: Cell Biology and Accounting. Cell Bio is best described as freshman Biology on steroids, covering everything that freshman Bio did plus more, and in far greater detail. I personally thought this was a great class, and it probably expanded my total Biology knowledge three fold - the complex inner workings and collaboration within cells, the purpose of genes, DNA, and proteins, and the functions of different body systems and how they work in tandem to keep us alive and healthy. Overall it was an excellent class, and one of the most informative that I took throughout my college career. At the complete opposite end of the spectrum is Accounting. At first it may seem like a random choice, but I was truly intrigued by the business world, and not just in regards to healthcare. I’d traded stocks for a while, and was very interested by world markets and how global economies worked (it was actually this interest that led me to start my own company during Junior year…….but more on that later). I took some Economics classes earlier, but wanted to learn more about the workings of individual companies. Accounting opens your eyes to how a corporation functions by following the money, allowing you to analyze the numbers and make sense of the different financial statements, that when combined, determine the health of an organization. I really wanted to get a feel for this stuff beyond my elementary knowledge of stock trading, and I’m very glad I took this class. Everyone regardless of their major or career path should take at least a few business classes, because having a rudimentary sense of how money actually flows in an economy will only help you in the long run.
The most meaningful thing I did my sophomore year regarding healthcare was going on a medical mission trip to Guatemala. I was sitting idly in Ochem lab, a week and a half before spring break, waiting on yet another distillation (believe me, it gets pretty mundane the 10th time you do it), and talking with my friend John about our pending plans for the coming week of vacation. I had basically no plans, but John was going on a medical mission trip to Guatemala with a group of doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, and volunteers. I listened intently as John told me how he was going to a tiny remote village in Guatemala to serve the locals. The more I heard, the more I wanted to go. By the end of lab, I got all the information from John and later that day contacted the trip organizer asking if I could come along. I also had to convince my parents, because let’s be honest here - a 20 year old making spur of the moment travel plans to a third-world Central American country doesn’t always bode well.
You want to go WHERE for spring break??
Long story short, a week later I found myself aboard a plane bright and early at 5:45am. Several things about Guatemala: if you've never been to an impoverished country, it’s an eye-opener. Just the way the average person lives is vastly different than here in America. I’ve traveled to my fair share of countries, yet it never ceases to amaze me how much abundance we enjoy here, and even more so how much we take for granted (as the famous meme "first world problems” makes light of). Our plane landed in Guatemala City and we took an eight-hour bus ride through the countryside to a small village called San Pedro, which sat encircled by volcanos on the banks of the massive Lake Atitlan. This area was exceptionally beautiful. Lush green forests surrounded the village, colorful birds sang throughout the day, a thin mist from the lake covered the ground in the early morning, and the air smelled almost like freshly cut grass, pure and absent any pollution. The locals did not have clean water, only sporadic electricity, the roads were partially paved, and the majority of “houses” were in actuality small one-room shacks made from aluminum or wooden sheets often lacking doors, with a tattered hanging blanket serving as the only semblance of privacy. The locals also did not share the same basic sense of hygiene that we accept as commonplace. This doesn’t mean that they were dirty, just that certain concepts like brushing one’s teeth in the morning were foreign to them – they simply didn’t know it was important. Additionally, due to poor nutrition and diet, the locals were very small in stature. I’m not even a tall man myself, but I was significantly taller than most of the villagers. These two factors, improper hygiene and diet, caused many of the locals’ medical problems. But despite all this, the people were so happy and constantly smiled, a smile so contagious that I couldn’t help but fully enjoy every second I had there.
Until this trip I never realized how valuable my ability to speak Spanish really was. Since I was one of the few members of our group who could speak Spanish, I helped translate between the patients and the doctors. No matter how skilled a doctor is, a language barrier is a very debilitating handicap. I could see the doctors' frustration at being unable to communicate with their patients. I’m very thankful that I picked up Spanish during middle school and high school, because it has been extremely valuable.
Rosetta Stone has championed the idea that the best way to learn a language is through immersion (and they're probably right). This of course isn’t practical for most of us as we are bound by school, work, and family life and can't simply go live in another country for six months. But what you can do is practice Spanish every chance you get by speaking to people every day. If one of your classmates or colleagues can speak Spanish, talk with them. If your grocery store clerk knows Spanish, have a quick chat with him/her during check out. People honestly love this. Everyone enjoys speaking their native tongue, and they will appreciate that you’re trying to learn something new. Initially you’re going to be terrible at it. You'll stumble over words, pause to think how to conjugate verbs, not know some of the words the other person uses...all that embarrassing stuff. But that’s the only way you’ll get better, because classroom instruction is slow and often doesn’t focus enough on conversation.
Anyways, back to Guatemala. My days went something like this: I helped nurses take patients’ vitals and explained what the patients were complaining of, ran to help dentists communicate with patients needing extractions, helped doctors explain to patients how much medicine to take per day, for how many days, and not to take more than one pill within a certain amount of time. I wrote these instructions in Spanish and gave it to the patients so they'd remember. I assisted in taking patients’ vitals, learned the basics of how to use a stethoscope, helped extract teeth, and gave out medication. It was a lot of work, and in our time there we saw over 700 patients in that village.
Sunrise at Lake Atitlan
Going on a trip like this may not be for everyone, but it’s one hell of an experience. There are two good things about these trips from a “pre-med” perspective: the first naturally is that they look great on your application and give you something to talk about during interviews. The second is that these countries have less stringent healthcare protocols, allowing you as a college student more leeway to help in procedures and really get to see, feel, and “do” medicine firsthand, something you couldn’t do in the States. My advice would be to do it. Medicine aside, it’s a really powerful human experience seeing how differently people live in other parts of the world, and can give you some perspective on your own life.
That’s it for sophomore year!