Erin's Bio

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The location changed, the classes changed, the professors changed. The people basically didn't. I made it through the normal Basic Sciences unscathed but was ready for a break during the summer of 2001. Instead, I did research, which was not difficult yet not easy, then took a long vacation at the beach and tried to mentally prepare myself for another year in the classroom. By this time I was sorely missing clinical work and sometimes wondering if all of the work was worth it. There were several times during the first year when all I wanted to do was turn around and run away from medical school as fast as I could, for various reasons. The work can get overwhelming; I worked very, very hard. I was from Radford, and according to some people Radford University students aren't capable of accomplishing anything. I had dragged my poor husband along with me to a miserable consulting job in Bristol, and I had been told all of my life that I had potential and was not living up to it, and figured that it was about damn time that I did. I worked just as hard, if not harder, during the second year. The subject matter was infinitely more interesting and relevant, and the teaching was superb in comparison to the first year. I loved my classes and attended nearly all of them, despite the fact that the party crowd sat in the back and talked so loudly and were so disruptive that others couldn't hear lectures most of the time. Faculty and administration just brushed it off. Despite some incidents (best friend falsely accused of accusing classmates of sexual harassment, a little confusing, I know) it was a year of learning, of being involved, and of finally feeling confident after months of battery to my self-worth. I never said it was easy. Friendships get tested and sometimes dissolve. The USMLE is always looming over your head from day one. The thought of third year excites and terrifies you at the same time. But you stick with the people that you care about and help each other through and try to look ahead. Once Step 1 is over, you have a little bit of freedom, at least until the clinical rotations begin in July...

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