Taking it Bird by Bird

Trying to take things one step at a time, I'm making some pretty incremental progress, but progress nevertheless. Small bits of thingy things:

Neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel

• Registered for the MCAT, as mentioned previously. March 22nd. In Eugene, OR. That'll be fine.
• Registered for Kaplan MCAT prep course, which starts December 15th and runs through March 16th. That's why the first bullet point will be fine.
• I've emailed and requested lunches with three of my intended letter-writers. Wait, hold on, four*. BAM.
• FIVE. This blog post includes several breaks.
• Emailed the Berkeley Free Clinic about volunteer opportunities.

Moving right along. Calm. Focused. Shit is gonna get real when that Kaplan course starts. I get to take the advanced course because I scored well enough last time so that's pretty cool.

Some Inspiration

TED talks are consistently a source of inspiring and brain-sparking bouts of twenty minutes but a couple of them I listened to recently were pretty awesome.

First, a doctor talks about transparency and collaborative care. Mentions many times that when you focus on providing the best care to the patient, you end up with lower healthcare costs. Sooooopriiisee!

And second, one that was so damn fantastic it made me cry a little. Neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel asks the question of what makes our brain so special - powerful, basic questions. It starts with the idea that we're not special at all (one that I love; all life holds lessons we can learn from, we don't have fancy brain magic) and ends with a conclusion about food. So very me.

It looks like she's holding a condom.

How do people do those fancy "what I'm listening to" thingies? Ah well, the inspiration for the title of this post is a song called "Bird by Bird" by Joe Crookston. It can be listened to....on google music! Youtube doesn't have it apparently, sorry about that.

Dreams aren't easy

Dreams can get lost

Fear comes in

And the dream gets tossed

How are we gonna make it?

What are we gonna do?

How are we gonna work

To make this dream come true?

We'll take it Bird by Bird

A little at a time take it bird by bird

And Stone by Stone

A little at a time

Take it stone by stone

Registered for the MCAT

Thanks to a post of a facebook friend who is also trying to register for the MCAT, I learned that, once again, I waited too darn long to get a viable test date in California. Wherps.

SO! Back to Oregon I go on April 22nd, 2014. But Eugene this time, not Portland. Gonna see if I can get a friend or two to make a road trip of it. HEY DAVID I'M LOOKIN' AT YOU.

Or I'll fly, but that would be 'spensive.

To bed with me. Goodnight, friends!

This was my day today.

I GOTTA GET A TRANSCRIPT

Boy do I not want to look at that puppy. Can you imagine what your transcript would look like if it was a puppy? I have some friends (read: one friend in particular) who would be a pure bred golden retriever but mine would be more, well, interesting. There'd be like a couple golden retriever patches of hair and differently sized legs, and I just do not know.

TWO POSTS. ONE NIGHT. CAPS LOCK. YEAH.

Getting the Band Back Together

One of my very best friends in the whole world came up with that post title and I liked it. David is that friend.

I'm applying to medical school again in June, take two, and why start a whole new blog when it's an extension of the same story? Anyway, this is mostly just to get me to actually start the dern thing - I've been trying to figure out how to do my first post back and establish what I'm doing and where I'm going with itblahblahblah.

So, forget all that anxiety stuff and just hello! It says I have eight subscribers so at least eight people will be getting this post in an email, or at least I think that's how it works.

I flew back this afternoon from Boston where I was attending the Annual Meeting and Exposition of the American Public Health Association (APHA for short), and it's always hard to not feel small when you're flying over entire cities and thinking about how many people are down there being lit by those lights that you don't know and will probably never meet. It makes the idea of being important at all seem futile. But it also reminded me that nothing is ever accomplished alone. Working at FoodCare has helped clarify for me that I want to be a champion of community and individual health and use the skills I believe I have as a motivator/leader/getting-people-to-work-together-toward-a-common-goal person to cause some population-level change. I know that I'll never be able to do that alone, and that's wonderful.

I guess I do want to say that the focus this time around will be much more broad. Not just some first-hand account or resource for wayward internet pre-meds but really (hopefully*, I tend to let myself down when it comes to big blog dreams) just a tracking of my thoughts on the journey. Because writing is therapeutic in its own right.

Thought 1: scary. Again. But exciting. Again. But more. That's not an again thing. The drive and the focus are new and powerful, and I'll get specific about that later (maybe. I'm really trying to go easy on the blog promises). For now, I'm going to finish this episode of Scrubs (the 100% most accurate representation of what working in medicine is really like, as everyone knows) and then go to sleep because jet lag is a thing. And taking care of myself is good.

Two Secondaries: There's Gotta be a Pun in There Somewhere

Dartmouth: done. $130
Standard, one-paragraph description of self and required coursework information.

Loma Linda: done. $75
NOT Standard. Practically another AMCAS application: 5000 more characters.
But actually pretty cool, they don't pull any punches about the fact that they're a Christian institution and most of the questions are about how your spirituality factors in to your daily life, and how you think it will ultimately make you a better doctor. It was interesting to think how my faith was going to affect how I approached academics, and was, in the end, probably beneficial to all applications I complete hereafter.

I did miss the "Second Secondary" fun title for Albany, alas. Anyway, because Loma Linda's was so surprisingly long, two is all I've got tonight.

Time for midnight donuts.


P.S. The Loyola-Strictch School of Medicine in Chicago asks that you limit responses to 25-30 "lines of text". This would be mildly helpful if the text box they ask you to write that response in wasn't resizable. Sigh.

Secondary - Albany Medical College

Things have been a bit quiet on the blog here recently, but that's not because I've forgotten to write, it's just because I haven't accomplished anything lately. Good news?

However, I just completed my secondary application for Albany Medical College, which unsurprisingly took far longer than I expected. But that's okay. The hardest question?

"Describe yourself: (1000 character maximum)"

My answer:

Hello, mystery-admissions-committee member, my name is Alex Bonte and I have found that "Describe yourself" is a deceptively simple prompt. Nevertheless:
I am an independent and open-minded individual who makes a supreme effort to provide an equal amount of respect to every person I meet. That personal principle stems from the fact that I genuinely care about those around me. These traits, along with a healthy amount of personal confidence, have helped me become an excellent leader. 
I love to be challenged. I have done best in my most difficult classes, and enjoy exercising the skills necessary to solve complex problems. Incorporating and making links to many bits of information is something my brain tends to be good at, and is something I find quite exhilarating. I am a man of integrity that possesses a sharp mind and a big heart. I also like to think sometimes that I can be a fairly funny guy, at least on a good day. 


Characters: 933
Deadline: December 15, 2011