Year 3
This past year has flown by, more so than last year even. Fifteen months ago, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the U.S. and college
changed completely as well. As late as August, we weren't even sure if UC would even allow students to return to campus and campus housing. Even after we did return to campus, the still-rising COVID rates actually had us on edge for a few weeks, expecting UC to send us home again. Luckily, that wasn't the case.
First semester began differently in a lot of ways, namely the lack of meet-ups and welcome week events and parties. Still, the school year began virtually and it felt almost like normal: overwhelming. Physiology, biochemistry, and genetics unsurprisingly had a ton of content, and balancing school and relaxation was extremely difficult when both are focused in the comfort of your apartment. My roommates and I made the best of it for a while, playing Injustice 2 and watching Cobra Kai to balance out the lack of normal activities. Despite our caution, it was only a matter of time till we had our first COVID scare. To get tested within a few days, we had to drive all the way to Dayton, and luckily our tests came back negative. It's almost surreal seeing how far the U.S. response to the pandemic has grown since last September, especially as traditional socialization returns more and more this summer.
Despite feeling a bit isolated during this year, GlobeMed really shined through. As an exec board, we did a great job cultivating a community every Sunday night over Zoom, and members really enjoyed it. We managed to blow our fundraising goals out of the water and continue to strengthen our partnership with SAW, despite a global pandemic. I served as the GROW Coordinator this past year and am continuing our projects for the internship this year, along with a team of 8 GROW interns. The 2020 internship worked out surprisingly well despite all of us making it up as we went, and this summer has a lot more structure ahead of time. This will all be reflected in my Honors Experiences page later this summer so I won't give away any surprises ;)
This past year has also been a highly charged environment politically, and I found a lot of my time spent unproductively on social media, which really just stressed me out. I started directing more energy towards learning and reading more about issues and the theory behind them rather than the daily commentary on social media. I think this was the right move for my mental health as well as my academic performance, and I really only regressed in this aspect around election week. That was a special time, we had a bunch of exams in the days leading up to election day, but the days after were a blur. My roommates and I would just attend our Webex lectures and congregate in front of the TV for the rest of the day making predictions and silly commentary. From there, the rest of the semester didn't slow down and all my classes except one finished before Thanksgiving, which is a schedule I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Having a 40 slide Physiology lecture five days a week and an exam every three weeks over those 15 lectures is a whole courseload on its own, not to mention the other courses on my plate, along with the absolute insanity our country and the world has had to deal with.
Winter break was uneventful this year, I spent almost all my time at home with my family and my dog. Normally, my winter breaks are when I heavily shadow and volunteer, but since hospitals were still overwhelmed by COVID-19 that wasn't an option. I spent spring living at home because of a number of family issues due to the pandemic, but some light did come out, as the vaccines officially began rollout and both my parents were able to get jabbed since they're both in healthcare. It was really interesting seeing how differently they reacted to the vaccines, and gave me some hope for the rest of the spring semester. As an aside, it's wild to see the difference in vaccine rollout around the world, especially when thinking of my family back in India. The pandemic is running rampant with the introduction of the delta variety, and we've lost a lot of family the last few weeks especially. It's truly unbelievable how resilient we've been as a society despite the mass deaths and sickness we've seen, but I often wonder whether it's really resilience or simply desensitization to the dark realities of life.
The courseload was different this spring since all three of my harder classes were actually biochemistry classes of a sort, but I enjoyed them and they turned out to be extra useful for my MCAT studying. Spring went unbelievably fast, and before I knew it, May had arrived, and along with it my MCAT: May 28th. Spring had been hectic and full of losses, including the sudden loss of a dear friend here at UC, and I really had been unable to put in the time in to study for this exam, so I made a promise to myself that for four weeks, I would make whatever sacrifices needed to feel ready for this exam. I spent 8-10 hours a day at the Medical Sciences building, and did 5 full length practice tests by the time my exam came around. It really helped being in an environment surrounded by stressed second-year medical students as they studied for their Step 1 exam, as they were able to offer advice and a sense of my future really, as I will eventually be in their shoes some day. Reminding myself that this exam is not the end of the world and that there would be harder ones down the line kept my spirits up in a way and my eye on the prize. By the time I walked into the test center at 6:30 am, I was really at peace, and I carried that sense of relaxation and clarity for the next seven hours. I felt so relaxed after walking out of the test center, really euphoric.
Seeing as it's only been a week since then, not much has happened since I returned to society, but I've been able to meet with our GROW team in person to work on our projects, and continue to build my primary application for med school. Despite what we've all gone through this past year, I'm keeping my chin up and looking forward to the rest of the summer and a return to more traditional college life soon!