Session 241 Many students would have given up, but Natalie didn't. She had to apply to medical school three times. The first time around, she ignored her premed advisor who told her not to apply yet. Her second time around, she applied and did very well. She got tons of interviews but didn't get in. Then on her third time, she took each obstacle and learned from it, ultimately gaining acceptance to six medical schools. Hear her journey, how she became successful, what she learned along the way, and her advice to you so you don't make the same mistakes. [01:25] Interest in Medicine and Growing Up in a Stressful Environment Natalie recalls wanting to be a doctor back when she was five years old in kindergarten. Obviously, she always had that interest since she was a child. Part of it too was having an aunt who is a doctor and that she likes people and the idea of helping people. Fast-forward to college when she was shadowing physicians, she started volunteering in the emergency rooms near her home and the idea appealed to her even more having been able to actually connect with people and having to learn more about the pathology, she got more involved. So the combination of science and service appealed to her. "I had an interest since I was a child but then I realized why I want to become a physician because of my experiences during college and after college." Natalie describes her family as having done their best to provide a great environment for her and her two siblings who were very different. One didn't graduate from high school while one is currently in community college. She didn't have much academic guidance from her parents in terms of asking them questions about school since her mother didn't graduate high school and her father being in a different area of expertise. So whenever she had issues on something, she would just do her research and she sought out mentors and asked questions. Additionally, Natalie had to learn to work in a very stressful environment. When Natalie was in high school, her cousin who lived with her was also in high and he got into trouble that led to some people threatening them. Despite everything that was happening, Natalie knew she had to do well in school and just learn to work under stress. "With persistence and then with my faith, knowing how to handle difficult times with a positive attitude, that really helped me." [05:40] Her Source of Motivation What made her stay down the path is the certainty that this was what she wanted to do and that she was willing to work really hard to get to it, not to mention that didn't see herself doing anything else. In her case, she had to try three times and her motivation came from the idea that it's going to take a lot of work but she eventually be a physician if she did her absolute best and if she sought the resources she needs. She needed to do this so she sought the mentors she needed. "I would always ask myself, what was missing here, what didn't you do right the first time?" For her, it was about being willing to put in the work and knowing she was picking the appropriate steps, not just guessing. Moreover, being a person of faith she believes that knowing this was something she was meant to do, she felt confident that it was just a matter of time. So she thought not getting into medical school was not just her time and she was going to learn something very important in the two years she wasn't in medical school. True enough, she learned a lot about her as a person and she was able to support other people going through other issues she gone through before and this gave her motivation too in knowing that her time out of medical school had some purpose to it as well and she thought she'd become a better doctor because of it. The second time she didn't get in and she was waitlisted at six schools, she thought about what she could learn in the interim. So she worked as a college instructor for adults with learning disabilities. Had she not had that exp