What medical book is studied in medical school?

What should I do about life/school? Floating in an existential ocean (very long read, sry)?

• Pretty complicated query I know... I graduated from LSU in 2010 with a BA in history and minor in English (joke degree, I know). I chose that because I had no idea what I really wanted to do and I love history. My gpa sucked balls because I never studied at all at the Louisiana public school (terrible) that I went to and made good grades. I had to learn how to study at college and it took me a long time. I also reacted very poorly from the shock of making my first ever F, in calculus, my 1st semester of freshman year.. followed by a D the next semester, with no good grades whatsoever to have any sort of bright side to the situation, which was then exacerbated by social scenes. LSU has a very visible greek scene and I was not a part of it. Very few people from my Podunk high school came to LSU with me, so I had very little social life going on- especially concerning the opposite sex, which all cute girls seemed to only be interested in greeks... Going into college you have all these wild ideas from tv and movies and I was pretty sorely (stupidly) disappointed. I wasn't expecting "Animal House," but I was hoping to have actually more friends instead of almost NO friends! I don't want to pour my entire heart and soul out, but another thing of note that should be said is that my older brother is Mr. Perfect, Do-No-Wrong in my parent's eyes. He graduated LSU with 1 B majoring in BioChem and then went off to Tulane Med and is now an orthopedic surgeon. So that makes me feel/look great that he breathes success and I vomit failure on my parent's doorstep.. So anyway a seething hatred grew out of my academic failures and jealousy/wanting acceptance, which grew into a pretty deep and serious depression. I did better my second year and grew a little more confident but I was lazy and poor, which is a very combination for a college kid. I failed another class my junior year because I never got the book (couldn't afford it :/). I know now that I should have taken out a loan to be more comfortable instead of stressed about not being able to buy lunch or books, but I honestly had NO idea how that stuff worked and I was babied too much/too lazy to take initiative and be more proactive. I scraped by making C's and the occasional B or even A and eventually came close to graduating. Somewhere along the line, I have no idea where, the random idea that I should go to law school was put into my mind by God knows who. Now I know you're rolling your eyes, especially considering this was 2009/2010 height of recession and people with no idea what on Earth to do saying "I'll go to law school!! Brilliant!" I focused hard on studying and took the LSAT.. I did pretty well, but I never sent the applications out, after realizing that was something I knew I didn't want to do. So after I graduated, with at least no debt (one thing I at least did right I guess), but also no real job or prospects at all, I worked for a year at a restaurant in town while staying at my dad's house, living the failed-college-student life. One day I went to the dentist (that I really think fondly of as a nice guy and a great dentist), and talked to him a long time after we were through. He had gone through a similar path as me but had decided what he had wanted and got it. So I did some research on dentistry (which coincidentally in high school was actually something I had really wanted to do) and thought it looked very appealing. I talked to some advisers at LSU and reenrolled for the next fall! I was very excited to get back and prove to myself and my family that I could do well in school! I had a real goal in mind and knew what I had to do. I ended up dropping freshman chemistry from not taking it as seriously as I should have from the start :( but I made a 3.7 besides that, and an A over wintersession in a difficult physiology course, so my confidence was boosted somewhat. This semester started off wonderfully, almost straight A's almost to midterms.. But my relationship with my girlfriend completely fell apart and everything was completely derailed big time. I made super low F's on 2 midterms and every class's grades fell substantially. I needed to get almost straight A's my second time through to even be remotely considered for dental school and that is most probably a complete impossibility now. So now I don't know what to do to continue, seeing as I took out student loans to try to make good grades and not be distracted by late-night restaurant work... and I'm (seemingly) wasting my time and money. If you read this far at all any advice, even if it is (HAHA YOUR LIFE SUCKS NEWB) would be appreciated. I am mature enough to know now that I handled everything wrong, and I wish more than anything I could go back and change the way I did my entire college career, but hopeful wishing doesn't change anything. I am pretty depressed and just lost with no i

• Answer:

  You actually sound pretty normal. I think studying to become a doctor of any kind requires a lot of focus. I'm not sure you have that. You seem to be a bit of an emotional roller coaster. Going back to school is fine, but I do think you should go easy on the student loans. You could collect a hundred thousand dollars in loans pretty easy. You would spend a good part of your life paying that back. Better to work and take fewer classes. Just be careful about that. Do you really want to study dentistry? Or is that just to impress your parents and brother. I think you might do better to go back and getting a PhD in history, if you really like history. Some of us take a long time to find what we really want to do. Good luck.