What is it REALLY like

A former student of mine recently contacted me when she heard that I had gone back to medical school. I was thrilled to hear about her success in surgery and life with kids and husband (sounds remotely like a life I once knew). She asked me a simple question..."what is it really like?" She's been actually thinking about medical school for some time. I did my best to fill her in on the nuances of the learning, the process, the goals, my experience in school, the battle of memory and my choice. I think I was pretty honest about it, open about the pros and cons, balanced about the reality of this.

But then I got to think about what it's really like. It is, as I've heard before, like eating an elephant...it's a lot of material to digest, in a short amount of time, and after awhile, you'd like to have another dish or something sweet to eat. And while the class is supportive and we are all in it together, in the end this is a very individual experience predicated on personal tenacity, goal setting and resolve. This is not a group experience except as we attack the elephant to eat. And trust me, if anyone of us should go down, there would be about 1 second of grief and I would become that other dish or "something sweet" to eat. I have no delusions, at least about that.