In-between Jobs
I was pleasantly surprised to see that it'd only been like 4 months since I last posted. Not bad in my opinion.
I'm in between jobs which at my time in life is a pretty nice place to be, to have some room to breath. However, it meant being a little more fiscally conscious than I normally am (which is saying something) and working extra shifts moonlighting prior to being unemployed so that I didn't default on my loans. But at this point unless my car malfunctions at some point during my ascent up the coast, I think I'll be okay, which is a very good thing.
I was going through papers this week. Initially, doing it to make sure I wasn't keeping useless papers. I continued doing it because it was interesting. It was literally like taking a walk down memory lane. Reliving the person I was. I didn't read every detail possible. I mostly was just glancing over most things.
At some point, I was struck. I was honestly struck. I was thinking to myself wow you did manage to get a lot of jobs in medical school. Now to understand this you'll have to take a step back with me. I had a partial tuition scholarship to undergraduate. It meant I had to jump through a few more hoops like recording volunteer hours, maintaining a certain GPA and living on campus, but at the end of the day it meant that I graduated with much less undergraduate debt than I could have. I applied for lots of scholarships when I was in high school and what I realized was that local scholarships were actually obtainable. I did joke before I obtained any of them about this super-human person that came from the least advantaged home ever that was necessary to get scholarships. Turns out that you only had to be Sarah-like to get them. hahaha. Just kidding. Anyway, so I worked during college and actually got another small scholarship from the state because I was wicked good at math and science. By my final year, I was paying back the few thousand in subsidized debt that I'd accrued. Why? Because I hate debt. Okay I know you aren't supposed to hate anyone but I feel like it's okay to hate debt- it's not a person. I still hate it, mostly because of interest accruing on it.
Back to the topic at hand: medical school jobs. Most people know that you don't take jobs in medical school. Not that people haven't, just that it's not common practice; mostly because medical school is demanding. However, this did not stop me from scheming on how to make money so that I wouldn't be in as deep of debt. And scheme I did! I thought about ways of getting all of it paid for like enlisting in a branch of the military. I briefly entertained thoughts of jobs such as being a surrogate mom, but dismissed this based on religious convictions and realizing that sometimes money isn't worth the consequences.
I did look at stuff like craigslist which in at least one case ended badly. Some promo where you get paid to have a sticker in your window, which sounded legit until I realized it was a pyramid scheme.
Despite the above not panning out, I did find quite a few ways to make money while in school. First, I was a mystery shopper. I got paid to make sure convenience stores were carding people less than 30. They were on me at least; probably because at the time I still looked like a teenager. I did at times wonder if I was going to get in trouble for this job since I had signed a contract saying I wouldn't consume alcohol while in school. Wasn't sure about the ethics of trying to purchase it.
In the meantime, I was living the cheapest housing possible (yes I did pay LESS with each place I moved over the 4 years). Each move I added one more roommate from 0 to 1 to 2 to my room.
One job especially being as flexible as it was was pretty decent except I didn't stop there. Remember, I said I was shocked by how many jobs I had! Next, I think, I became a chapel monitor. I had to be at most of the chapels anyway. I stood for 5-10 min at the end of chapel scanning IDs and got paid for the whole hour of being there. It was probably minimum wage for 1 hour a week but that was money I wouldn't have otherwise had. Third, I did the training and became a Kaplan MCAT teacher. I only taught one semester including some tutoring but in my mind I'm like How did I make time for that??? Fifth, I actually did occasional medical lectures for the hospital volunteer program that I was in in college. It paid eight hours of lectures for $100. I may have only done that like 5 times. Sixth, I tutored a student from the year behind me through a school sponsored program and got paid for that. It was whenever she needed help and I did it from her first through her second year. Seventh and lastly, I coordinated a day long experience of medical school for high school students by the NYLF.
As I was going through pay stubs and papers, I was like You actually crammed a lot into your time in medical school. I do remember thinking that I had SO much free time when I started medical school; mostly this was because I didn't realize how much I was going to need to study to stay up with the mountain of material presented daily. Though I was involved in a lot of clubs and leadership in college so i was used to being busy.
You'd probably think that was enough and I did too, but I continued to do random stuff like apply for scholarships and write poems for contests except none of that panned out. Likely, this was because it's easier to look good from a pool of local high school students than one of well educated graduate students. As one of my deans used to say (concerning why we needed to take national standardized tests), if you are at the top of a pile of garbage, you are still garbage. Not that I consider myself garbage.
Anyway, I still hate debt. Paying the standard repayment plan on my loans and have been for 2.5 years. I feel like I've paid a quarter of my debt but that's probably just optimism. I do pay extra whenever possible. I wonder how much more debt I'd be in if I didn't hate and fight against it so vigorously. Maybe not an appreciable amount? Or maybe I'd still owe now what I owed when I started despite paying it off.
So I'm sure you are wondering where am I going with all this? First, I just want you to appreciate how creative you can be in solving a problem even if the problem is not having lots of debt or getting more jobs. Second and more importantly, I want you to stand in awe a little bit regarding two things: 1. Our God is so creative in supplying our needs (even a need for jobs), 2. When you are within the will of God and you seek Him first, He multiplies what you are able to do exponentially.
He is faithful, good, and just. He will complete the work He began in you!
I'll leave you with a thought from one of my poems that I wrote in medical school:
If you walk a mile in someone else’s shoes,
You just might find you’re barefoot.
I'm in between jobs which at my time in life is a pretty nice place to be, to have some room to breath. However, it meant being a little more fiscally conscious than I normally am (which is saying something) and working extra shifts moonlighting prior to being unemployed so that I didn't default on my loans. But at this point unless my car malfunctions at some point during my ascent up the coast, I think I'll be okay, which is a very good thing.
I was going through papers this week. Initially, doing it to make sure I wasn't keeping useless papers. I continued doing it because it was interesting. It was literally like taking a walk down memory lane. Reliving the person I was. I didn't read every detail possible. I mostly was just glancing over most things.
At some point, I was struck. I was honestly struck. I was thinking to myself wow you did manage to get a lot of jobs in medical school. Now to understand this you'll have to take a step back with me. I had a partial tuition scholarship to undergraduate. It meant I had to jump through a few more hoops like recording volunteer hours, maintaining a certain GPA and living on campus, but at the end of the day it meant that I graduated with much less undergraduate debt than I could have. I applied for lots of scholarships when I was in high school and what I realized was that local scholarships were actually obtainable. I did joke before I obtained any of them about this super-human person that came from the least advantaged home ever that was necessary to get scholarships. Turns out that you only had to be Sarah-like to get them. hahaha. Just kidding. Anyway, so I worked during college and actually got another small scholarship from the state because I was wicked good at math and science. By my final year, I was paying back the few thousand in subsidized debt that I'd accrued. Why? Because I hate debt. Okay I know you aren't supposed to hate anyone but I feel like it's okay to hate debt- it's not a person. I still hate it, mostly because of interest accruing on it.
Back to the topic at hand: medical school jobs. Most people know that you don't take jobs in medical school. Not that people haven't, just that it's not common practice; mostly because medical school is demanding. However, this did not stop me from scheming on how to make money so that I wouldn't be in as deep of debt. And scheme I did! I thought about ways of getting all of it paid for like enlisting in a branch of the military. I briefly entertained thoughts of jobs such as being a surrogate mom, but dismissed this based on religious convictions and realizing that sometimes money isn't worth the consequences.
I did look at stuff like craigslist which in at least one case ended badly. Some promo where you get paid to have a sticker in your window, which sounded legit until I realized it was a pyramid scheme.
Despite the above not panning out, I did find quite a few ways to make money while in school. First, I was a mystery shopper. I got paid to make sure convenience stores were carding people less than 30. They were on me at least; probably because at the time I still looked like a teenager. I did at times wonder if I was going to get in trouble for this job since I had signed a contract saying I wouldn't consume alcohol while in school. Wasn't sure about the ethics of trying to purchase it.
In the meantime, I was living the cheapest housing possible (yes I did pay LESS with each place I moved over the 4 years). Each move I added one more roommate from 0 to 1 to 2 to my room.
One job especially being as flexible as it was was pretty decent except I didn't stop there. Remember, I said I was shocked by how many jobs I had! Next, I think, I became a chapel monitor. I had to be at most of the chapels anyway. I stood for 5-10 min at the end of chapel scanning IDs and got paid for the whole hour of being there. It was probably minimum wage for 1 hour a week but that was money I wouldn't have otherwise had. Third, I did the training and became a Kaplan MCAT teacher. I only taught one semester including some tutoring but in my mind I'm like How did I make time for that??? Fifth, I actually did occasional medical lectures for the hospital volunteer program that I was in in college. It paid eight hours of lectures for $100. I may have only done that like 5 times. Sixth, I tutored a student from the year behind me through a school sponsored program and got paid for that. It was whenever she needed help and I did it from her first through her second year. Seventh and lastly, I coordinated a day long experience of medical school for high school students by the NYLF.
As I was going through pay stubs and papers, I was like You actually crammed a lot into your time in medical school. I do remember thinking that I had SO much free time when I started medical school; mostly this was because I didn't realize how much I was going to need to study to stay up with the mountain of material presented daily. Though I was involved in a lot of clubs and leadership in college so i was used to being busy.
You'd probably think that was enough and I did too, but I continued to do random stuff like apply for scholarships and write poems for contests except none of that panned out. Likely, this was because it's easier to look good from a pool of local high school students than one of well educated graduate students. As one of my deans used to say (concerning why we needed to take national standardized tests), if you are at the top of a pile of garbage, you are still garbage. Not that I consider myself garbage.
Anyway, I still hate debt. Paying the standard repayment plan on my loans and have been for 2.5 years. I feel like I've paid a quarter of my debt but that's probably just optimism. I do pay extra whenever possible. I wonder how much more debt I'd be in if I didn't hate and fight against it so vigorously. Maybe not an appreciable amount? Or maybe I'd still owe now what I owed when I started despite paying it off.
So I'm sure you are wondering where am I going with all this? First, I just want you to appreciate how creative you can be in solving a problem even if the problem is not having lots of debt or getting more jobs. Second and more importantly, I want you to stand in awe a little bit regarding two things: 1. Our God is so creative in supplying our needs (even a need for jobs), 2. When you are within the will of God and you seek Him first, He multiplies what you are able to do exponentially.
He is faithful, good, and just. He will complete the work He began in you!
I'll leave you with a thought from one of my poems that I wrote in medical school:
If you walk a mile in someone else’s shoes,
You just might find you’re barefoot.