Hello!  I'm Jennifer, a 29-year-old mezzo-soprano.  I've been singing professionally and teaching voice and piano lessons for the past six years.  A couple of years ago I had a quarter-life-crisis and decided to completely change career paths and go into medical school.  So I had to go back to undergraduate classes and take chemistry, evil physics, and the dreaded organic chemistry.  I took the MCAT once, didn't do too well, took it a year later and improved my score by six points, getting me into a top medical school in the Southeast.  I start two weeks from today.

So, in the past three months I have changed my religion, changed my marital status and thus my name, changed homes, changed careers, and my parents' divorce will be finalized any day now after thirty-two years of marriage.  For someone who doesn't deal well with change, this is a lot.  There are days when I'm completely overwhelmed by it all, but you just have to keep chugging along. I mentioned all of this to a therapist friend of mine who told me that I am under a lot of stress and I will most likely get very sick over the next year as I deal with all of these changes.  Well let's hope not! 

I was inspired to start this blog by my hairdresser, who also happens to be a good friend.  I am in a unique situation.  First of all, I'm an older student in medical school.  They call us "non-traditional."  Second, I made a major leap going from an arts field into a science field.  My plan is to discuss the transitions I have made recently over the next two weeks and then walk my readers through the first year of medical school and probably beyond.  I have had so many people ask me why I changed fields. I have had people contemplating doing the same thing and looking for guidance. I have no idea what to expect from med school, so maybe I can help people considering it make a decision and survive the first year. I am writing for the sake of writing and hopefully I can give a little insight into the insanity of med school.  I can't believe I start in only two weeks!