Episode 1:
"Do Things at Your own Pace".
Do not allow yourself to get pressured.
Do not allow yourself to get pressured.
I can’t stress enough how important this is, important for everything.
Your studying efficiency, your progress, your scores, your relationships, and most importantly: your mental, emotional, and physical health.
What do I mean by “your own pace”?
I mean DO NOT ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE PRESSURED.
There will be times when your peer will call you to chitchat and tell you that they are done studying, practicing, drawing, preparing a paper/presentation, or bending wires for that Adam’s Clasp, and so forth… You would be still half way there, or just barely even started!.. THERE, DO NOT GET PRESSURED.
One thing you have to know is that people are very different. How?
1-Different Sleeping schedules:
Some people can go home from school and straight-away start studying or doing assignment and be done before 8 pm. Other people just have to have a meal, get a little nap and then start doing stuff. I know some people who eat, go to sleep super early and get up at before sunrise and do whatever they have to do.
See? What would happen if a guy from the first type called on someone from the last type?
2– People have different abilities and mentalities:
You might have a brain that can understand an article or a chapter really quick, but memorizing a sentence could take you forever. You might have really good hand skills (hands with a memory) that you don’t need to practice over and over again, but your studying skills aren’t that great.
So DO NOT COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHERS.
It might have happened that your friend and you went to the the lab to practice- say- suturing, your friend might make it perfect from the first time, while you are still trying to figure out how to properly hold the needle holder.
Here you might feel pressured to just finish up and not look like a fool, but STOP!. You have to realize that this friend might be taking forever to get their brain around the tables and charts in public health while you yourself got it by barely skimming through.
3- People have different priorities, interests, and things they enjoy doing.
#priorities :
For some people their priority might be their academic standing. For others it might be their health, social life, or relationships. Some students care most about their clinical performance and are fine with just-good-enough grades.
Well, some people prioritize themselves ALL DAY, EVERYDAY in EVERY ASPECT OF LIFE, at the expense of other people and they wouldn’t care a bit if it meant taking away from people. There’s no room in their mind and soul for someone else.
# Interests:
At the end of the day, students are humans, AND it is only normal that humans have different interests.
I myself for example LOVED public health with all the numbers and charts and spotting patterns and thinking out of the box and coming up with strategies. I KNOW that I was almost THE ONLY STUDENT WHO REALLY ENJOYED IT.
I also loved reading and writing papers, presentations and all that jazz. However, most clinics were just not my cup of tea. So what? Despite the struggle with the clinics I did graduate on time with a very good academic standing. Most importantly, I DIDN’T GO AROUND WINGING IT.
Don’t let people who act like they are “Le Grande Master of Everything” fool you into thinking that you should be good in everything, or that YOU’RE LESS OF A DENTIST THAN THEY ARE just because you despise endodontics- because that is just insane.