Passion

No, just because I was given the thought of making medical school easier on myself by traveling to another country, did it influence my overall decision. I knew that becoming a physician would not be an easy task, in my own personal experience before leading to today, I really only had a view from my own physician and obviously watching the series, House M.D.

See, doctor House had a certain selfish manner in the way he practiced medicine, but it was effective. When deciding that I wanted to enter the medical field I began with wanting to become a nurse. With hours and hours of research I decided that becoming a nurse wasn't enough, that I wanted to be the one responsible in making the correct decisions on a patient's health, that I was the one with the extensive knowledge capable of being trusted by putting their lives in my own hands. I knew that I would have to buckle my seat belt forcing myself to give it my best in order to succeed. Choosing Biology as my major, it was obvious that it would fulfill all of the prerequisites required when being tested on the MCAT. So there I was continuing my studies as a science based major with the right mindset to improve.

Although I was a smart student I was not a smart student on paper leading to being highly criticized in my decision of becoming a physician. I later on realized that a successful physician is not successful in the grades they receive, nor did it reflect who they really are, but the overall practice and experience in the field led to high success. By last summer my mind was set, in which I was going to become a doctor no matter where I studied. Acceptance into an ivy league school, low end school, or a medical school in Mexico did not bother me. It has no effect on how I learn medicine, nor does it effect what kind of doctor I would become, my goal is to be a doctor practicing anywhere at any given time to provide care towards patients and giving them the overall quality of life.

Quality of life, one of the hardest things to understand when actually being in the patients shoes. My drive, passion, and overall thoughts of becoming a physician would be tested. Not once had I ever imagined myself practicing medicine. What was to follow?

Uncertainty

It seems that I may accustom myself to writing late into the night, or early in the day (depends on how you feel).

Straight after high school I obviously didn't apply to a university since I didn't have the best transcript out there. So I moved onto community college, with really not having any clue of what I wanted to major in. Although I always had some kind of passion for mobile technology, I could never see myself doing something such as marketing or what not as a career. From the uncertainty I decided to obviously take some general education classes and at least get some requirements out of the way. Oh, and to clear the smoke I still wasn't 100% focused on school nor was I even trying to give it my best.

It wasn't really until I went to Mexico during the winter vacation that followed where I began to think about what I wanted to do. The education system in Mexico is a lot different than the States, instead of doing prerequisite classes and getting your bachelor's degree in whatever to get into medical school you were immediately tossed into the hot zone. Straight out of high school my cousins were already one semester closer to becoming a lawyer and a dentist. Meanwhile I spoke highly of my general education classes (sarcasm) they asked me why I just didn't study in the city of Guadalajara (~25 minute drive from where I would stay). At the time I thought, "ok" cool idea, but what would I even study? Fabian, one of my closest cousins going to dentistry school spoke about how he was first interested in going to medical school to become a doctor but had changed his mind. Doctor. Interesting, I asked them if there was any school that offered some kind of international program, and there was.

UAG (Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara) is really one of the only schools in the region that offers a medical school program for international students and assist them to go back home and work in the field. Of course, they expected prerequisites which included: chemistry, biology, organic chemistry, and physics. Thus leading to taking the MCAT (Medical College Admissions Test) which obviously resulted in getting a bachelor's degree at the same time. But here's the catch, the requirements for UAG are a lot lower than the requirements for a medical school in the States.

The MCAT has an overall grading scale between 0 - 45, most students in the United States compete with 30+; UAG required a minimum score of 15. The uncertainty had quickly faded.

Where to begin?

Hell, I doubt anyone is even interested in reading my words, knowing my thoughts, or wanting to know anything about my life at all. I don't quite know how to begin a blog, but I guess I'll just begin with a rather basic introduction. My name is Xavier Llamas and I'm a 20 year old "premed" student at West Valley college, my major is Biological Sciences. Or simply, Biology.

Road to medical school? Yep, that's my decision, my goal, my dream that keeps be going and fills my head with a million thoughts. Before even going into why I chose to pursue medical school I'll begin with honesty (assuming that's how I would gain a reader's trust). Anyway, I was never the brightest student in the bunch during my grade school years; in elementary school I was a quiet student who wasn't really there. There as in, not having many friends, no real social skills, but a kid who really spent more time playing video games than doing his homework. Nor was I a successful student during middle school, pathetically passing classes with D's and failing. The beginning of high school was almost exactly the same as middle school, not really caring about my grades or even think about my future even once. By my pathetic junior year in high school it wasn't until my English teacher who made me realize what I was capable of and exploiting my faults by humiliating me in front of the rest of my peers by saying, "Xavier, can you stop turning in half-ass work?". Oh how I'll never forget Ms. Quinn's wonderful and inspiring words. Realistically, those words made me think about how much of a loser I really was, and by the beginning of my senior year in high school I knew I had to haul ass in order to graduate, and I did.