Podiatric medical school is hard. Not only is the material complex and being thrown at you at, what feels like 100 miles per hour, but you must find time to then study and comprehend all of this brand-new material. On top of that, you also need to find time to eat, sleep, shower, go grocery shopping and partake in other activities that fulfill your basic needs. All of this can amount to long and grueling days and finding the motivation to push through becomes all the more difficult. Thoughts start to enter where you think to yourself, ‘why am I doing this to myself? Is this truly worth it?’ Whenever questions such as these arise as you undergo your pod med adventure, I would recommend you to a simple phrase that a podiatrist left me with before I embarked on my own journey: “Even when you question on certain days whether this is worth it, remember it is. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.”

It is all easier said than done, but on those days where you feel that no matter what you do, you can’t seem to be getting anywhere, take a deep breath and a step back and remind yourself of why you decided to pursue this field in the first place. Also, find little moments of joy within the day, whether it is catching up with your friends in class, trying out a new local coffee shop, or just taking a walk to clear your mind from school-related material for a little while. Do your absolute best to prevent weighing yourself down with the expectations from school (and possibly even yourself). Those little moments of time where you do relax can allow you to regain sight of the bigger picture and why you decided to pursue podiatry. The journey is long and difficult, with obstacles coming at you from every angle, however if you embrace the grind and take time out of your day to let your mind wander away from podiatry for a bit, it becomes all the more manageable. And this allows you to replenish the fuel that motivates you to tackle the expectations of podiatric medical school, enabling you to accomplish and become the person and eventual physician you aspire to be.