My favorite "digging through the trash" story was twenty years ago, when I discovered dozens of pounds of medical school studyguides (as a then- pre-med, about to begin studying for the MCAT). Literally $thousands$ in textbooks.
Right as I was loading up the last of the Princeton Review™ bullshit, I found the neighbor who was throwing all this nonsense away (as he had just been accepted to a medical school). He told me, with no hesitation, that I should find a different career if I didn't want to be burnt out all the time.
Sage advice, and I wish I had listened (could have saved years of my life; I dropped out after the first year, myself, disgusted by what I then saw forming within US healthcare / ACA).
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Decades later, I still have several boxes of 1"x3" index cards, which the future doctor had thrown away several thousand of (mostly blank). So-as to not tempt a future pre-med (into matriculating), I burned everything else.
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If any pre-med is reading this, please feel free to contact me so I can offer my opinions on better alternatives. You probably won't listen (and there certainly are happy physicians), but if you're attempting this career "to help people" and/or "make money," there're hundreds of easier ways to accomplish both.
Right as I was loading up the last of the Princeton Review™ bullshit, I found the neighbor who was throwing all this nonsense away (as he had just been accepted to a medical school). He told me, with no hesitation, that I should find a different career if I didn't want to be burnt out all the time.
Sage advice, and I wish I had listened (could have saved years of my life; I dropped out after the first year, myself, disgusted by what I then saw forming within US healthcare / ACA).
----
Decades later, I still have several boxes of 1"x3" index cards, which the future doctor had thrown away several thousand of (mostly blank). So-as to not tempt a future pre-med (into matriculating), I burned everything else.
----
If any pre-med is reading this, please feel free to contact me so I can offer my opinions on better alternatives. You probably won't listen (and there certainly are happy physicians), but if you're attempting this career "to help people" and/or "make money," there're hundreds of easier ways to accomplish both.