The Health of Pre-Medical Students

Written by Akshita Virdy

Being a pre-medical student has a realm of expectation of perfection that follows. If you tell anyone that you are thinking of going to medical school, they will think that you have your life together and that you are on top of everything.

“You must have clinical experience, right?”

“ Have you worked in a hospital before?”

“You have to take the MCAT right? That is such a difficult exam.”

Yes, these are all true. These are all expectations of being a pre-med student; however, at the end of the day, I think it is most important to realize that we are all humans at the end of the day. The perfection that we strive to have is unimaginable. It may not be impossible but potentially at the cost of your own health. I think it’s important to note that we have our bodies for the rest of our lives, meaning that we have now to take care of them.

Medicine is a marathon, not a sprint. That being said, it is important to take care of yourself so that you can finish this marathon knowing that you did your best the whole way. You are taking care of patients but at the same time, run the risk of becoming one. You tell your future patients to eat healthily and exercise, journal and meditate, and find hobbies that make you happy and are your outlet. And yet you turn around and do the complete opposite. It is important that along the way in providing care to others, we provide that same care to ourselves.

It is okay to mess up. To be imperfect. It is what makes each of us unique. You may get a bad exam score, fail a class, not do well on the MCAT, and have to retake it. There are so many things that could potentially go wrong in this career, or any career for that matter. But that does not mean that you will be a victim of your circumstances. You have this passion for medicine for a reason and that should be your motivation to pursue a certain career, knowing there will be obstacles in the way.