My whole life, I've prided myself on being a good guy. I've always tried to be honest, tried to be outgoing, generous, and I've always gone out of my way to help people. I've never cheated on a test, never lied when it really mattered, and I've never intentionally wronged anyone I care about. I never conceal my intentions, I do my best not to hide things from people, and I make it a point never to suck up or talk behind peoples' backs. For a very long time, this approach basically got me nowhere.
Undergraduate studies was where I saw the worst of it. Friends of mine would cheat on tests, copy assignments and hand them in for high percentages, and they would also take classes specifically so that they could cheat and get high grades on them. They got interviews for medical school, pharmacy school, graduate studies, careers that went somewhere and meant something. I hated them for it, and I hated that they had it so great and so easy in life and I had to struggle, even though what they did never really affected me. I trudged through university like the field of bodies it was and etched out my 2.96 GPA, which was good enough for what seemed at the time like the lousiest of Caribbean medical schools. Even there, I was only accepted because I had a solid MCAT score. One thing those people who cheated couldn't cheat on was the MCAT ; I remember one guy who consistently scored 13s on his sciences (impressive, basically) and then scored an 8 or something like that on verbal. I scored an 8 on verbal too, but I brought it up the second time to a 10. Somehow. Don't ask me how.
Then in medical school my luck didn't seem to change. I studied as hard as I could through every course, was a TA, etc etc etc and it lead to board scores that were below or barely near average at best. I thought to myself, how in the world would I get into residency like this? What hope do I have of landing a job when everyone else keeps telling me "They only look at your Step scores" and "if you don't have the grades, you won't get the interview". And then, if I even got an interview during interview season, how were these people supposed to pick me over the other candidates who were American citizens and didn't require visas?
Then something interesting happened. I went on these interviews, and people were actually pleased to meet me. I didn't get into my top 2 choices, but #3 on a list of 5 was still quite good, I believe. I sat back in my chair today and thought to myself, why would they choose me? I have mediocre step scores, and I went to interview just like the other 150 people they met that year. So what made me all that different? Then I realized the last 26 years of being a good guy and having solid character may have actually done me well. Looks like being a good guy, a nice guy, having values, principles, honor and character, may just matter to people after all. Either that or they picked me because I was last on their list and everybody else didn't want to go there. Nah.
Real quick, other things that happened today: I kept up with my reading, I ate a bit better but I'm out of chicken breasts so I'm not sure where that leaves me for the rest of the week, I got back on the bike (which was amazing) and I actually started back on Sarnecki. I'm on page 9, trust me to buy the book that incorporates the Basic, Intermediate AND Advanced books into one book. If I don't learn a new language, I guess I'll at least finish that book. Hopefully, anyway. Oh and it's a secret project, nobody's supposed to know, so keep it on the d/l guys.
Addendum : Apparently there are people in the US already viewing this blog. How this happened I don't know, I don't intend on locking the blog down because it's quite exciting to think that someone may actually find my life interesting enough to come across it, but if you viewed my blog and you plan on coming back here, and I didn't invite you to join, then I DO invite you to comment and let me know who you are, where you're from, and what you think/thought etc. I have views now. Fascinating. The internet never ceases to amaze me.
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