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in lieu of a summer elective

I absolutely wanted to take an elective overseas this summer. There were just 2 major roadblocks on the way:
1) I wasn't sure what field/experience I wanted to expose myself to; and
2) I just didn't have the money to pull off a trip this year having gone on two tours with MedChoir for the past two summers.

Well, I'd like to believe these were really the reasons that hindered me from going. But now that I have this much free time, I have this sinking feeling that I just got in my own way again. For #1, I'm sure further introspection would lead to me to the right answer. For #2,  it's the same thing I thought last year when we went to Europe, but I (with the help of my family) managed to pull it off. I guess that once again, I got in my head and disqualified myself from opportunities without even really trying. So, I decided that I need to make this summer a very productive one. Here are some of my ideas:

1. Get a job

 Or at the very least, a source of income. I have so many plans for the future (including travel), and I need money to accomplish them.

2. Review

 Some clerks and interns warned us that there won't be much time to do pretty much anything, so I thought it might be a good idea to start reviewing for the board exams on 2019 by starting with the basic sciences. I'm going to go through Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pathology, and Pharmacology again. I also plan to brush up on several skills useful for clerkship such as reading and interpreting ECG tracings, X-ray films and arterial blood gases. Wish me luck!

3. Expand knowledge

 I've been putting off learning new things and developing skills for a very long time now, but I am really interested in learning several, strictly speaking, non-medical fields such as Data Science, Statistics, Economics, Programming and even Machine Learning. I actually really believe that being adept at these fields will render me adaptable to the inevitable age of automation and AI. Either that, or I go into molecular medicine in grad school because as they say in the burgeoning era of precision medicine, the trend is to "go molecular."

4. Be healthier

 I'm not getting any younger, and I'm already experiencing some things deemed to be happening too early for my age. I'm morbidly obese and might be hypertensive (will find out soon). I figured I should start becoming healthier now as I'm entering my years of peak physical capacity rather than later.

So yeah, that's it on the things I plan to do this summer. I hope to be able to accomplish them all.

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