The first day of my last semester of second year is tomorrow, and though I'll miss the first two days for travel I'm still anxious and excited. The first year and a half of med school has felt like a sprint and a marathon all wrapped up into one giant package of facts and pictures. All of this knowledge is now supposed to be used to perform well on the USMLE Step 1 board exam this coming June. With two fairly "easy blocks" to start the year followed by 6 weeks of dedicated boards study time, this semester is basically six months of preparation for the biggest test of my life. No big deal.

Oddly enough, last night I had a stress dream about starting clerkships. I was wearing a long skirt with a ridiculous pattern, my white coat, and those stark white new balance sneakers that senior citizens love. Despite my horrifying outfit, I spent the whole dream wandering around the hospital and surrounding areas looking for my stethoscope. The dream was a bit unexpected because I've actually been looking forward to starting clerkships since the first day of med school - it will mark the end of the basic science curriculum and my transition into actually seeing patients everyday for the rest of my life. In retrospect, I think the dream may have stemmed from the fact that the next six months will be a haze of intense studying, and the start of third year is the "light" at the end of the Step 1 tunnel.

January will be an especially busy time as I and others in my class pass our clinic coordinator positions onto the first years. "Extracurricular" activities take on a whole new meaning in med school compared to undergrad. As a premed you can basically be a part of any random club and participate as little or as much as you want, but as a med student you ARE that club or clinic and that means phone calls, coordinating people and times, and dedicating extra time to the success of the organization. I also have just a few weeks to prepare an oral presentation for a research conference at the end of the month. I've never presented at a conference before, so an oral presentation is pretty daunting. Luckily, a few of my good friends are going as well so it should be lots of fun.

I've learned a lot about myself since the first day of med school. And even though studying for step 1 sounds impossible, I'm excited to see what I'm capable of. If you're a premed reading this, remember to approach undergrad one semester at a time and to make those semesters count, because those study habits and drive will be something you can build on in med school and beyond. I hope everyone out there has an amazing semester!

On that note, I'd like to introduce my son, Melo: