Week 4

Congrats! You are a month out from your last day of school! Hopefully you are on the market looking for your next career and/or something to do until you figure out what that might look like. This is totally fine and remember, it will get better. You made it through four whole weeks at this point! Odds are classmates are now too busy to reach out to see how you are. This does not mean they don't care, they are just trying to stay afloat. Remember, you are free now. This should be refreshing to you. You know what it used to be like. You get to go to work (hopefully a part time distraction for now) or work on your resume and job applications until your family/partner/roommate is home and the day is over. Even if you have kids and a partner they are all you have to worry about at the end of the day. No homework. Isn't this nice?

Now for the tough stuff….Student debt is going to rear its ugly head in then next few months (6 months to be exact, well 5 now). You have got to really focus on firing up your resume and finding something stable. Don't panic, so long as you are proactive with your lenders you'll be okay. If you get the notice that they want money and it's way more than you can afford, be very upfront. Do NOT wait for them to come to you looking for the money. That can ruin your credit and become a serious pain in the ass. If you are proactive, you can research income-based repayment schedules, negotiate with your lender. But as painful as it is, you will have to pay back every stupid cent. This is where looking back on it now, I see that being "invited to pursue other career opportunities" in April of my first year truly was a blessing. I have just under half the debt of the rest of my colleagues which made the loan payments a bit less awful. Again, you still have time to get a stable job and get in the swing of it. You looked good enough on paper to get into grad school, you will find a job.

Be prepared: By now you have transitioned into being white-hot, seething with anger over this. Not going to lie, there are people who are AWFUL and will make TERRIBLE clinicians still in your program. This was an expensive pain in the ass road to a dead end. But, things your life does not depend on becoming a PA or a MD. You are disappointed in yourself and that is totally understandable. A number of things lead to this but its going to be fine. I promise.

Rx:
Hustle up on the part-time gig if you don't have one. Again, doesn't have to be your dream job, just some income and a reason to get out of bed. Be certain it isn't a job that will interfere with your capabilities to make it to interviews for real jobs. Start really considering your next step. I don't recommend more school but you have to find your own path. By now you probably hate all of the assholes still in the program. The people who are the worst that are still there, the people that patients HATED are still there and yes, one day will practice medicine. You get one calendar year to hate these people. No more that 5 minutes per day is to allocated to hating them. The rest of the time, you need to focus on your next step. Spend much more time than this and you will become bitter and a lot less fun to be around. Don't hate your friends who are still in the program. Long term, you will be happy for not shutting the ones you really grew to like and care about. Remember, nothing about this process is permanent.