Summer 2019 Plans
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll know that I post updates each year on how I’m planning to spend my summer break. This year is a bit different. I still have some plans, but after three years of hard work, my main plan for the summer is to REST. With the knowledge that senior year is on the horizon and that I will hopefully be on my way to medical school soon after, I wanted to take a couple months to reflect on my college experience and really practice the self-care that I think is so important to exercise as a student. So, what does that look like?
For the month of May, I won’t actually be relaxing as much as I’d like to, thanks to the good ol’ MCAT! I plan to take the test on May 24, so between the end of finals and then I will be taking practice tests, studying up, and making sure I’m prepared for the test. However, once I’ve taken the MCAT, I can really take a step back and breathe.
After I’ve taken the MCAT, the only real thing I have to accomplish is sending in applications to medical schools. Because of the stellar preparation Vanderbilt has provided, I’ve already got a list of recommenders and have written my personal statement, so this will largely be a process of sending in materials that have already been prepared, so this shouldn’t be too stressful. Applications open June 1, so hopefully I can have everything submitted at the beginning of the month without too much hassle.
Outside of these plans, my summer is lining up to be really calm. I’m already planning trips to visit friends in Minnesota, Colorado, and Florida during the break. On top of that, I’m hoping to read, spend time with friends and family at home, and do things I love like volunteering and shadowing at my local hospital. I’ll likely have some things to prepare as VUcept president so that first-year orientation in the fall runs smoothly, but apart from that, this looks to be a summer of self-care.
Feel free to read my previous posts to get a sense of what I did over the summers after my first and sophomore years at Vanderbilt as a pre-med student (they were definitely a lot more jam-packed). Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions regarding life at Vanderbilt, feel free to contact me at alex.rains@vanderbilt.edu.