All Things Final

So over the past week or so, a couple of things have finished up.

Finals Week
Like I've mentioned earlier, I had the lightest finals week of my undergrad. Of the finals I do have grades for, I did pretty well. Still waiting on Endocrinology though.

Med School App Process
I've withdrawn from all schools that haven't rejected me. That is, I've withdrawn from not only five of six schools that accepted me but also both my waitlist schools. These last two waitlist withdrawals brought a sense of finality to the med school application process. For details, check here. Some random numbers: Boston University applicants (11000), class spots (155); Loyola applicants (9400), spots (145); Northwestern (7000), (130); Vandy (4300), (100); Rosalind Franklin (6500), (185); UIC (6500), (300). From these numbers, I'm pretty happy to have multiple acceptances. But almost a year, a couple thousand dollars, countless essays, nine days of interviewing, and a lot of waiting later, I'm definitely going to be at UIC. Yay me.

UIUC Undergrad
A few days after sending out my final withdrawals, commencement rolled around.

The orange/blue cord indicates University Honors (Bronze Tablet), the white cord (over the stole) indicates James Scholar Honors. Part of graduating with University Honors means that I'll have my name on a bronze tablet in the Main Library. Kinda cool, IMO. Also, the line for getting this pic and a pic with my family was ginormous. Anyway, there are similar feelings of finality regarding my undergrad/premed career, since getting into med school was such a big goal for me. Finality in being one step closer to becoming a practicing physician. And while I did pretty well in undergrad and feel good about how I did, I can't help but wonder...

What's Next
Now for actually doing well in med school and residency. Undergrad organic chem, biochem, molecular bio, immunology, endocrinology, bacterial pathogenesis, anatomy, physiology? Psh, wait until you see what's next. Or at least that's what I hear. After the excitement of getting my first acceptance and the finality of picking one school, I'm starting to freak out. Mostly about the amount of time and work I'll have to put in for med school. I guess this is only natural at this point and will work to keep me going once I actually start. But, in the immediate future, I'll be heading up to Chicago in a few weeks to check out a few more places and actually sign on an apartment. As of right now, my tentative move date is late July/early August. Orientation week is August 13, with the first day being August 20th. I'm ridiculously excited to move up to Chicago, get situated, and check out the city, but not so much about school. Either way, I get the feeling this summer is going to fly by way too fast.