Detours to Dreams: Reflections from a Non-Traditional Student

Like video game side quests, life’s detours led me to unexpected adventures that enriched my journey to medical school.

The idea of wearing the iconic white coat and making a difference in patients’ lives sounded amazing, but felt out of reach for me. I wasn’t the perfect student in high school, neither talented nor gifted – just an average student without exceptional academic abilities. Just the idea of being premed filled me with doubt and hesitation. After all, everyone knows it’s difficult to pursue medical school, and only a handful seem to get there.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do after high school, but enlisting in the U.S. Air Force to serve my country and gain life experience seemed like a great option. Being able to serve as a medic in the Air Force exposed me to inspiring physicians and resilient patients. These people reshaped my beliefs about what was possible and my mentors revealed how education could amplify my impact. My patients’ stories of grit and triumph fueled my ambition to aim higher, and fueled my desire to hit ‘start’ on my path to medicine. I wanted to be bold, take that first step, and prove to myself that I was capable of doing more in this lifetime.

My plan was to finish college and then go straight to medical school. But I got a wakeup call in 2012, after I was unsuccessful during my first application cycle. After I graduated, I found myself scrambling and without a backup plan, so I started reaching out to people, asking about employment. Luckily, my former work-study supervisor had an opening as an undergraduate admissions counselor.

“I’ll do this for one year, then straight to med school,” I told myself. But one year became two, and two turned into four. Although I continued to reapply over the years, it wasn’t until a decade later that my dreams of attending medical school became a reality. As a non-traditional student, I learned to see my alternative routes not as roadblocks, but as valuable side quests that have added value to my main storyline. Progress might not always seem obvious, but every turn has served a purpose.

Over the years, I started reaching out to medical schools to see what I could do to strengthen my medical school candidacy. Taking their feedback to heart, I retook the MCAT, improved my academics by getting a graduate degree, and stayed involved in extracurriculars like tutoring at a local homeless shelter and taking on teaching roles at Texas A&M University while working as a graduate student. During this time, I also worked closely with the wonderful staff at the Texas A&M University Office of Professional School Advising. Altogether, this helped me to build a stronger medical school application and become a more competitive candidate.

The non-traditional path also gave me opportunities to grow as a person. As an Assistant Director for TRIO Student Support Services at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, I had the opportunity to work with underserved populations such as first generation, low socioeconomic status, and students with disabilities. This federal grant program is designed to provide academic support, mentorship, and resources to help students persist in college, graduate, and achieve their long-term goals. My role was to help remove barriers that often stand in their way – whether through academic coaching, financial aid guidance, career planning, or simply being a source of encouragement when self-doubt crept in. These opportunities deepened my ability to connect with people from all walks of life, directly shaping my approach to patient care.

The maturity I gained from working in the professional world was invaluable. I learned that even the toughest moments are temporary, and resilience is the key to making it through. This persistence has been my secret weapon to get through the preclinical years of med school, helping me push past my limits. It’s something I lean on every day.

Through this journey, I learned lessons that helped me level up and stay on course. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up along the way:

• Set small, achievable goals. Not only does this help to build positive momentum, but those small wins all add up. Each application cycle I went through was difficult, but I found accomplishment in the little things. For instance, getting my letters of recommendation in, submitting the primary application early, finishing CASPER, prewriting all my secondary applications, scheduling an interview, etc.
  
  
• Rejection isn’t the end of the road. Seek out advice and resources to understand how to improve your application and reapply. Keep going. After asking for feedback from medical schools and working with the health professions office at Texas A&M University, I had my most successful application cycle.
  
  
• Tackle adversity with offense, not just defense. Take control of the setback, and work to make the best of the situation. Getting rejection letters was never easy, but I countered setbacks by continuing to be involved in extracurriculars. I worked against losing my “why” for medicine, and continued to believe that my goals were within reach as long as I didn’t give up.
  
  
• Keep your morale up. Morale is like a video game’s energy bar—if empty, you’re stuck; when full, even the toughest bosses become beatable. I was very fortunate to have a great support system to lean on. You can make a circumstance more tolerable with the right people and mindset.
  

Reflecting on my non-traditional journey, I see how each challenge prepared me for what lay ahead. It’s also given me a quiet reassurance to know that nothing is impossible, that any goal is within reach if I can hang in there.

There’s no singular path to medical school. The road less traveled may have taken me longer, but it equipped me with the skills and experiences I needed to get where I am today. So, press start, embrace the journey, and trust that every step on the path will shape you into the physician you were meant to be.