Thanks for keepin' it classy, Columbia

I am proud and happy to say that I have now completed the Columbia Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program. I am also happy that I will no longer have to say that phrase and then explain what it means when meeting people at parties. Yes, I am an adult. Yes, I am taking undergad classes. Yes, it is a lot of work and a huge commitment of the next ten years of my life.

It was a two year undertaking that has left me exhausted and demoralized, but also filled with the sense that I now know a whole lotta science, which is really cool (see that posting with the glowing rats, yeah!).

Because it is not a degree program there was no graduation, but there was a certificate ceremony. As it is my nature to obscure pomp and ceremony, and because I was feeling some serious school fatigue from finals, a formalized closing held little draw for me. However, there was an email saying that as a goodbye present we would all receive a pair of scrub pants and to please give pant size when RSVPing. Well, after the hefty price tag of a Columbia education I figured I wasn't going to pass up free pants my fees had paid for.

But I am glad that I went to the ceremony. It was just delightful. A student spoke with humor about changing careers and the trials of the premed program. The Chair of the Committee of Admissions for Albert Einstein Medical School in the Bronx, Dr. Robert Marion, gave advice to applicants and medical students.

Then, there was a champagne toast and canapes, really good canapes. There were little bits of beef that I didn't try, and lovely salmon treats. A piece of brown bread cut the size of a quarter with a little cylinder of salmon wrapped around cream cheese stacked on it with a bit of caviar on top. Just lovely with a slightly fruity bubbly beverage.

Dr. Marion's advice was a list of do's aimed at maintaining sanity, health, and humility through the schooling of a medical student. Included in this list was to keep a blog for ourselves and our memories, but also to share the experiences. I believe that his phrase was something like: "as medical students you will have experiences that mere mortals never will." Well, done and done. I have always believed that I am having fantastic experiences that others are denied (see apple cider donuts, yum). So I hope that you, as a reader, are enjoying the living them vicariously as much as I enjoy writing about them.