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Well as it turns out UCF (University of Central Florida, Orlando) offers a degree that both appealed to me and that I could complete at an accelerated pace too! I’m extremely excited that everything is going as if it were planned perfectly. I have decided to go for my baccalaureate degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. That means it’s a combined degree of dual minors in Mass Communications, and Health Sciences and studies in the Physical Sciences. I believe this will be a great choice to help keep me diversified and well rounded for medical school. I’m sure that medical school will be focused on sciences so taking these other courses undergrad will be enjoyable and just help complete me as a person. Mass communications interests me in that those courses are the same ones that journalists, radio and television, advertising and public relations undergraduate majors take; how exciting is that? I’ll be able to go into a career as a TV Medical Correspondent later on. Of course I’ve had some experience with TV as I was on Animal Planet’s “The Pet Psychic Show” once as well as included in a documentary for a film production crew from the UK.

I’m pretty excited that I was able to secure the Physics class I needed and the proper courses for the balance of my studies needed to progress me forward and secure my BS degree. Of course I will be taking no less than 19 - 20 credits these next two semesters - but that’s become my usual pace these days. Right now I am enrolled in a Health course as well as a Mass Communications course for Summer B, while I prepare for my MCAT. My ultimate goals; complete my BS degree (start to finish 2.5 years!) and gain entrance into medical college for Fall of 2009!

I’ve pushed up my MCAT testing date to August 5th so that I can take an “in-person” study course in Toronto, Canada. While up there I get to see my sister and brother-in-law which is going to be awesome. Even though I am a native New Yorker I’ve never really gone to upstate NY much - so it will be refreshing for me to go up there and see the area. Rochester area is supposed to be very pretty, and I don’t doubt it as upstate NY is gorgeous. It will be nice to get out of the summer heat Florida packs too. If I were rich I’d have a summer place somewhere milder than Florida - since I’m not my choice would be to stay here in Florida and enjoy the lack of snow, I’ve had enough snow to last me a lifetime - I seriously can live without ever seeing the white stuff again. I do however have fond memories as a child playing in it when it was over my head, I also recall having to shovel it too! One thing was certain my mom always had homemade hot chocolate waiting inside to warm us up, that and homemade vegetable beef soup too. 

I had a blast in St. Croix this trip. Met two new CRNA’s and had some beach fun with another I met over Christmas holiday. Saw many interesting surgeries and more dynamics of the O.R. and made it even that much more clear to me that it’s 100% what I want to do. I think that every pre-med student should take the time to shadow a physician, it certainly gives you a wealth of information on many aspects of becoming a physician, and readies you for the challenges and the lifestyle ahead. In short, I’m extremely glad I put in the over 100 hours that I did in the Operating Room and I’d highly recommend any pre-med student do the same. Being that I am in the medical field via veterinary medicine I had some inkling of what to expect with regard to the surgery and medicine itself - but seeing and being part of it on the human side was a joy as well as an eye opener in many aspects. One thing it’s good for is to see if you can tolerate the view of surgery, you would find out real fast if you were squeamish and if the field was right for you. I was speaking with a young student the other day and she was explaining how she had thought she’d be a pre-med student but the site of blood made her ill and she realized early on she’d better go into the administration side of it - so she was going into marketing and business end of it. It just proves that you must be certain that in all aspects you are ready for medicine and that it is a good fit for you, and probably the best way to do that is to actually be there observing. Shadowing in my opinion is an invaluable tool, and I can see why medical schools like to see it on your application.