Looking At 2019

2019 is a big year. Within six months, I will hopefully be finished with my biggest exam of med school, the Step 2 CK. I finish my third year of med school in three weeks and will finish half of my required fourth year rotations in the next three months. The most critical tasks at this point are centered around scheduling my rotations in Dallas (which will save me roughly $2,500 per month without paying for rent or the agency that schedules rotations). Of course, what occupies significant space in my mind is also researching my backpacking trip through Southeast Asia next year, and recruiting friends to join me. The latter point is a notable one, as a dear friend who plans to join is a traveling musician who rarely saves up the amount of funds required for such a trip, and typically raises money through busking while on the road. This foray will lead us into nations that are quite familiar with poverty, so performing for money would likely be both unkind and unfruitful.

In the meantime, the only thing I have scheduled for this summer is that major exam; perhaps I will even be finished with it before my birthday in June. I have missed summer sunlight, despite the predisposition to melanoma in my family. I will hopefully record a podcast with a friend and possibly obtain a scuba diving certification in anticipation of that backpacking trip.

The fourth year of med school is said to bear similarities to one's senior year of high school, with exams completed, easy rotations, traveling for residency interviews, and, in my case, plenty of extra time allotted for travel. I plan to hopefully graduate from medical school by the end of the year and then take my Step 3 before that trip to Southeast Asia. This would both improve my chances of obtaining a residency and get my major exam of my internship year of residency out of the way before that time actually begins. From what a resident friend tells me, it is remarkably similar to the Step 2 CK, so taking it sooner would be very advantageous, especially since residency is not particularly known for giving many extra hours of study time.