My last meeting with Meshal proved that not only was I
interested in what he had to say, but also that he is interested in learning
about me as well. The majority of our conversations have been about him and his
transition from living in Saudi Arabia, but our last meeting focused mainly on
me and what I do here at TCU. I was stressing pretty hardcore about an upcoming
organic chemistry test, so that launched us into talking about my classes and how
I am a pre-med. We chatted about how I want to be a doctor one day – hopefully working
in pediatrics somewhere, maybe specializing or maybe not. He wanted to know
what kind of classes I have to take, so I told him about all my biology classes
and chemistry classes, how my schedule next year will consist of genetics and biochemistry,
and how hard it is to get into medical school. Then he wondered, “how long is medical
school?”
I then let him
know that in addition to my four years at TCU I will be attending medical
school for another four years. After that will come my residency, which is about
two years long and is essentially like a paid internship that provides specific
training in your chosen field, whether it be pediatrics or orthopedics or
oncology or family medicine, etc. And THEN, if the goal is some sort of
specialization (for example: choosing to be a pediatric neurologist or
pediatric cardiologist as opposed to a pediatrician) there will be another
several years of training involved for that.
“That sounds terrible,” he replied. “As
soon as school is over, *boop* no more for me, I’m outta there! I want to do
something and get working as soon as possible.”
Ahhhh to be a non-science major…
In addition to our meeting, we also
were jointly surprised to discover that we would be playing on opposite teams
in an intramural soccer game last Wednesday. Jogging around the field to warm
up it was impossible for me to not spot him and his giant ‘fro. We said best of
luck to one another and began the game. Turns out he is very good at soccer and
very fast… I played defense for twelve or so years of my life (though I stopped
playing four years ago), and he was on offense for most of the game. He was
very hard to cover, and I definitely got burned a few times, clearly out of
shape and out of practice in comparison. My team ended up losing 4-2, but they
also had five substitute players while we had zero…and one of our players had
food poisoning that day and still played. However, it was still fun to play
against Meshal and see him in his element on the soccer field. No doubt we will
definitely be talking about it in our next meeting, and I’m sure he will be joking
about how out of shape I was!
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