Staying Positive
I just responded to one of the billion emails in my inbox, and I thought I’d go ahead and post my response, as it might be helpful for all you first semester Rossies right now. I wrote another post about surviving your first semester at Ross, but here are some tips on staying positive. The writer specifically asked how to stay positive, and what to do about the scary upperclassmen who say that it’s impossible to make it.
Dear Writer,
Congrats on making it through your first day! 
Actually, looking back, I can say that the first few weeks were the toughest. There isn’t much you can do to avoid that. It’s just going to be hard, no matter what!
As for keeping positive, here are some tips:
1) Ignore EVERYONE who has bad things to say. Whether they are complaining about the study load, or Ross, or Dominicans, or the food. Just ignore them. Seriously, don’t listen to them!
2) Find some extracurricular activities. Whether it’s going for a walk, or run (my personal fave!), or picking avocados, or just having a beer at Tomato’s. Just find something. Don’t believe the people who say you have to study every second. You don’t. And you will explode if you try…not to mention the fact that you’ll probably do poorly on exams. Study your ass off, but take time off to have fun. It’s imperative!
3) Try writing down your thoughts (obviously, this worked well for me!) Sometimes, just putting all your stress into words can be incredibly cathartic.
4) Remember why you want to be a doctor. Figure out why you wanted to take this plunge. Write it down, if you have to, and post it over your study area. Whenever you feel like crap, think back to the reasons that made you come to Dominica.
5) Make friends. Try to find the cool folks. Like I said, ignore the complainers! Surround yourself with positive folks, and you’ll find that you end up being much more positive yourself!
Ignore those silly older semester students. They suck! Just worry about yourself, and try to make the best out of a very tough situation.
I wish you the very best! Try and keep a smile on your face, no matter what. A little smile can go a long way.
Cheers,
Kendra
Note: In true doctor form I am, of course, way better at dishing out advice than taking it.
My name is Kendra and I am a third-year medical student attending 
How do we older classmen suck? Please explain that to me, my senior? Anyway, yeah…to add on what Kendra said: Have fun! You’ll do better, feel better, and actaully learn something. For example, 3rd had complete and total weekend drunken blurs…Kendra can confirm! But I got straight A’s (ok minus the B in BS, but that class doesn’t count. I only watched a total of 10 hours of lecture and still scored very high on the shelf).
Oh, you know how you suck, Sayeh!
And actually, I didn’t mean all upperclassmen. Just the ones that were given her a hard time. And really any student that complains about everything all the time, especially about Dominica. Congrats on your grade Sayeh toots!
hey complaining is a great common bond that all caribbean med students have. there’s lots to complain about but also much to be happy about.
i dont agree with the whole upperclassmen suck thing either. when i was starting out i got lots of advice, etc from them. i hope i was somewhat useful too as i progressed through the island
Kevin,
Thanks for the comment and for making me clarify! I’m not saying that all complaining is bad….you definitely have to bitch about things sometimes! I’m just talking about the people who complain about everything, and never stop to appreciate the beauty of the island, etc. And most upperclassmen are obviously awesome! But the emailer had given me a specific incident, which I did not share in this post, and I was specifically responding to those upperclassmen. Anyway, thanks for making me ’splain!
G’day Muffin!
You are missed.
You are missed.
Now you gotta um, you choose what goes here.
Zombiecon in New Yawk in October.
You down? Bloody Marys and Braaaaaains.
http://www.zombiecon.com/
hopefully you don’t have schoolsy stuff to do, but if so, we can try to get off all of that fake blood before you go scarin’ folks at the ol’ hospital.