If you’d like to keep up with my progress over the next four years/hear HIPAA-safe stories/listen to lessons from the trenches of medical education and American healthcare/learn about cool stuff I’m learning any given time, please give me a follow at road2md.tumblr.com ! I’m also happy to answer any questions high school students/premeds/aspiring doctors have on that account!

I started this blog a little over four years ago, when I was a high school senior yearning to be done with my hometown and on to bigger and better things. This blog, among other things, has fallen by the wayside as I moved to college, met the love of my life, lost my beloved grandmother, found new talents, and chased my dreams. Most of my followers have probably changed blogs or moved on! Nonetheless, four years later, here we are again -- much the same as we began. Some things are different; some things are new. I'm at the end of another life-changing chapter of my education, and I'm looking forward to the next. Parts of my family are smaller, lonelier; others are (much) bigger, happier. I'm getting two degrees in a few months, and college has revolutionized the way I think and see the world. At the same time, in some ways, I'm still the same me that moved into my dorm four years ago, oblivious to both the heartbreaking and delightful changes that would shape the next four years. Enough of the sentimentality and on to what's happening next! Many of my (earlier) posts dealt with pictures of patients and pathology, treatments and technology. I've been fortunate to receive several acceptances and offers to different medical schools, and I'm delighted to say I'll be moving to Birmingham this summer to start pursuit of my MD degree, which will take another four years. Afterwards, it's anywhere from another three to nine or ten years of (paid!) residency before independent practice depending on the specialty. I am starting a new blog at road2md.tumblr.com , where I will chronicle every step of my medical education. I know it will be all-consuming and overwhelming, but I promise to post at least four posts per week -- even if it's just a quick blurb -- describing what I'm learning, memorable patient encounters (sanitized for HIPAA, of course,) and my highs and lows as I transition from know-nothing layman to know-nothing doctor. As I progress to graduation in less than four months, I will update you on that blog on everything from my last classes to my summer vacation for a long time to house-hunting to book shopping to orientation and getting my short white coat! So please, dear readers, if you're there, give me a follow at road2md.tumblr.com I hope to see some of you there and let you into my world!

Tschüs!