My week off

I'm taking this week off from all things med school related. I need a break and need to catch up on a bunch of administrative stuff. I need to catch up on my work, need to sort out some sort of childcare for Tubes for before/after school (my baby is starting kindergarten in September!) and just do some stuff around the house I've been meaning to for a while, but never felt I could justify doing instead of studying. Like organizing this one drawer in my kitchen that's full of random documents, hanging some pictures on the wall in my living room and preparing for my trip to Poland in 2 weeks. I also want to do something for me, like get my hair cut and get a massage.

Lastly, I want to develop a good, realistic study schedule for MCAT attempt #2 (and need to register for it as well). My definitely learned my lesson with being too optimistic. I need to make sure my schedule is not too daunting and has enough buffer room in case my son gets sick, to factor in in-law entertaining (they are visiting us from New Zealand for a month) and for those days when I just can't be bothered.

Anyway, I'm sure this week is going to go by really quickly so am going to enjoy myself as much as I can.

The count down begins!

Yay! As of today I have only 10 business days left of "real" work!

So excited to finally be able to focus studying (and wearing Lululemon everyday)!

I QUIT!

So yesterday I unofficially told my bosses that I've decided to resign. It took 2.5 hours and to be honest, I was so drained afterwards I didn't even have the energy to write about it, even though it felt wonderful to finally do it.

The funny thing is that I didn't intend to tell them yesterday - I was planning on doing it on Friday because I have been nervous about how to broach the subject with them. And in the end, when they asked me, pointe-blanc if something is wrong, I figured I owed them the truth. I told them how disappointed I was with the role not being anything like they promised - I'm a Chartered Accountant not a personal assistant or secretary. I said that I've reached a point in my life where I expect more from my job on all levels. The senior manager tried to see if there was anything she could do to make me change my mind but I said no. Or rather I gave them some conditions which I knew they wouldn't be able to promise (which were basically what I was promised when I took the job) and they accepted it. I was surprised because the senior manager actually seemed to understand and just apologized to me about how unfairly I've been treated - which I wasn't expecting. The other manager though, I think, is just pissed at me.

Anyway, long story short, I'm just glad its over. I'm going to hand in my resignation letter tomorrow to make it official. October 14th will be my last day.

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."--Chinese Proverb

After dealing with a bit of a crisis at the beginning of this summer (which I will touch on at a later date), I realized how unhappy I was with a large chunk of my life, namely, with my job and the career path I was on as I blogged about as a guest poster on Mothers in Medicine.

However, I realized that I'm NOT too old to pursue medicine and really started to believe that being happy is the best thing I can do for my family (even if it means pursuing a career in something thats so demanding of time and emotion such as medicine). And for me, having a fulfilling career is an incrediblely important component of my happiness. I only get one shot at life and don't want to look back in 10, 20 years regretting not even trying.

So I've decided to chronicle this journey - the first step, deciding to do this, I've taken. Now I'm in the process of taking the next steps. I've signed up for my first prerequisite course (Biology!)via a correspondence program and I've started to study for it. I'm planning on signing up for an MCAT course in January and hope to take the MCAT in April.

I know it will be hard and I know at times I'll really question whether I'm making the right choice by pursuing this. I also know that I may fail. I may not get into medical school despite doing everything I can. But I'm going to try and if you are reading this and have been there, please send me some words of encouragement!