Being a Pre-med student and Learning to Let Go

Trying to think of a best way to start this blog but here it goes.. I guess for being a pre-med student you’re constantly trying to keep it together. With academics, research, volunteering, work and other extracurricular activities, it can be overwhelming sometimes. Especially when it’s your final year in undergrad and now you’re constantly worried about passing your courses and what your plans are for after graduation.

I’m currently a Biomedical Sciences major and I’m in the Medical Laboratory Sciences program at UWM. I’m actually doing my clinicals at Columbia St. Mary’s hospital in Milwaukee. It’s been pretty exciting and the staff are pretty nice (I especially liked my phlebotomy rotation, when I saw all the newborns in the NICU). I just hate the part when I have to study for my rotation exams.. I’m also apart of the WiscAMP-STEM Inspire program and it’s great. It’s helped me to get out of my comfort zone in the STEM field and it consists of library nights( once or twice a month), conferences, events, and faculty/peer mentor meetings. Also I am currently doing research with the Support for undergraduate research fellows program with Dr. Campos-Castillo. I currently participate in two projects in her lab.

 

Finally I work at the Women’s Resource Center as one of the Marketing Coordinators! I started working at the Center since the end of August. Working at the Women’s Resource Center has helped me to expand so much in my writing (with blogging of course). But the fact that this Center offers valuable resources to students is incredible. I think the hardest thing for pre-med students is deciding when to let go. I’ve realized that I’m not a robot and I can’t do everything all at once. I’ve realized that since I haven’t had the time to do more in the center, that it’s time for me to let go and focus on clinicals and have dedicated self care. It’s important to realize that whatever you go for, you make sure you get whatever you need to be better. I really wanted my leadership to grow in the WRC but with everything going on with clinicals, research, academics and other extra-curricular activities, I knew it was time to step down. But now after working here for about 4 months, I know what I need to work on so that I can be great in my career. I knew that public speaking was something that I wanted to improve on but having the table talk sessions during the staff meetings helped. I guess even with staff meetings, I currently can’t attend because of clinicals.

With that being said I hope I’ll have more time to take care of myself and prioritize for spring 2019! I guess I can focus on finishing my last semester strong and focus on what is my next step after graduation. It’s been real and I learned a lot from this experience! Wishing good luck to the next blogger and passing on the keys (I didn’t want to say a baton because with writing blogs, you need a keyboard lol) Take care everyone!