Hello beautiful people. I am officially done with PA school. I graduated this past weekend. I awoke this morning still in disbelief I am officially a Physician Associate. This 11 year journey has come to an end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I started this journey in 2012. For the longest throughout undergrad I was conflicted between pursing MD vs PA and when I decided on PA postgrad I put my all in. I retook undergrad classes I didn\u2019t do well in to improve my GPA. I began taking the prerequisite classes for PA school at a local community college. I worked jobs where I was over qualified and underpaid to gain the required healthcare hours. At one point I was working two jobs, a side hustle and taking classes. Back then there wasn\u2019t much standardization amongst PA programs so each year it felt schools were adding new requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I first applied to PA school in 2018. I received one interview invite, but sadly the interview was cancelled because the school did not receive accreditation. I applied again in 2019, not a single interview. I remember reaching out to a mentor for advice and was told I should focus on building my career in public health, to \u201cgo get a PhD\u201d instead. Although this mentor was trying to help I hung up that phone call and cried. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I applied to PA school in 2020 I felt it in my spirit I was going to get in.
Shadowing hours \u2714\ufe0f
GPA requirement \u2714\ufe0f
Healthcare hours \u2714\ufe0f
Community service \u2714\ufe0f
Volunteer hours \u2714\ufe0f
Publications \u2714\ufe0f
Research experience \u2714\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I kept faith and knew I had did the work. I prayed and knew at that point it was up to God.
I applied to 12 schools, 5 schools invited me to interview, 2 schools I interviewed at. Both schools sent an acceptance letter, one school I accepted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My grandfather use to say \u201cif there\u2019s a will there\u2019s a way<\/em>\u201d or as I like to say \u201cif a will you have, a way you will find<\/em>.\u201d As I reflect on how far I\u2019ve come I hope as a reader you feel inspired. Follow your passion, chase your dreams. Strive to persevere and learn. Grow from your challenges and take those lessons with you throughout life. It\u2019s hard for people to see your vision because it is not their vision to see. To my fellow prePAs I understand the journey can be daunting, but do not give up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Next stop passing my certification exam followed by starting my full time position, but first vacation! Lol. Slide show pending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember, you are loved \u2764\ufe0f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello beautiful people. I am officially done with PA school. I graduated this past weekend. I awoke this morning still in disbelief I am officially a Physician Associate. This 11 year journey has come to an end. I started this journey in 2012. For the longest throughout undergrad I was conflicted between pursing MD vs…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-physician-assistant"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t