MD/PhD Journey

MD/PhD Journey

The purpose of this category is to share my personal experiences going through school- the lessons I’ve learned, the skill I accumulated and my life experiences. I am an international student from Nigeria currently in America for college, so I have lots and lots to share!

From the blog

  • Dear Resting Lab Face

    In all honesty, my new motto entering the lab was: “Act like you give a sht.”* I would literally repeat it to myself before walking in. Not because I don’t care — I do. I genuinely love research. I love thinking deeply, solving problems, contributing to something bigger than myself. But I realized something uncomfortable:…

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  • Dear Imperfection

    Dear Imperfection, As an artist, dealing with you comes with the territory. You show up in brushstrokes, uneven lines, colors that don’t blend the way I imagined. In art, imperfection can even be beautiful. But as a researcher, you terrify me. I think about the weight of getting things wrong. Not small mistakes — not…

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  • Dear Money

    Dear Money, You’re an uncomfortable topic in medicine. One people dance around, soften, or pretend doesn’t matter. But you do matter — not as the goal, but as the context. When I think about becoming a physician-scientist, I don’t imagine wealth as excess or status. I think about sustainability. Freedom. The ability to choose meaningful…

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  • Dear MCAT

    Dear MCAT, You’ve been a lot. I’ve officially started studying for you, and honestly, it’s been intense in a way I didn’t fully expect. A lot of the content feels unfamiliar, and some of it feels like I’m learning a new language all over again. But I’ve found that sticking to Anki, committing to a…

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  • Do I really Have What It Takes to be a Doctor?

    Dear Future Me, How do I know if I have what it takes to be a doctor – let alone a physician-scientist? I’ve seen so many doctors work and walked through the steps they took to get there: the late nights studying, the seven-hour MCAT, the constant push to network, build relationships, and apply yourself…

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  • Dear Scientific Writing (Poster)

    Dear Scientific Writing (Poster), I love to write, and I love science.So you’d think scientific writing would come naturally to me — you’d be only half right. This summer, I’ve been working on an independent research project that I’m so excited about. But I’ve never done anything like this before. At first, I was overflowing…

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  • Dear Lab, You Are More Than An Item On My Checklist

    Dear Lab, Anyone on the pre-med track knows how valuable having lab experience on your resume can be. When I first joined a lab, I did it with that in mind, but over time, I realized that this was more than just a resume booster — this was my future. I needed to treat every…

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  • Dear Academia Gossip, You make me Uncomfortable

    Dear Academia Gossip, When I walked into the world of research, I had no idea you existed. I knew people were competitive, smart, and driven — that wasn’t surprising. What I didn’t expect was how mean some of them could be. I was standing outside the office of a prominent researcher at my university when…

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