ALL THE DEBT!

In a world now plagued with memes (a word obviously created and spelled by someone with dyslexia, and quite possibly high on 2 - 5 different kinds of recreational drugs), my inebriated friend once asked, "What meme best describes med school?"....... Well he more accurately asked, "bwat mee-mee shows how much your !@$#ing med school blows @#$." But lets just go with my translation, shall we?

It only took me .00041 seconds to think of my answer. And here it is:

ALL the debt. All of it. Forever.

You know why that stick figure looks so weird? Because he is going to medical school, that's why. That little fool is wigging out. Notice the lack of pigment in his skin, due, of course, to books not letting him outside. Big scary books. Big scary books that'll kick your butt if you try to close them and walk away. Respect the books. Now we will direct our attention to his stylish hair-do. "Where can I get that sweet hair?! What do you call that fantastic follicle arrangement?!" Cheap. You call it cheap. You call it self-done in a dorm with clippers that no one recalls the origins of. I can go on and on from his studying induced eye proptosis, to messed up teeth from nervously biting on pencils, to the fact that he is most likely wearing a hand-me-down moo-moo straight from a Macklemore song. It all boils down to the fact that something is very, very wrong with this person. He is willingly going to med school.

Now, am I just being dramatic now? Of course. But there is no denying the fact that SOME aspects of medical school absolutely suck. Like when I found out the tuition. I calculated it out and it will be just shy of $300,000. **UPDATE: It will be more than $384K with non-subsidized loans (the only kind now available to professional level students)** That is tuition ALONE! That does not include food, rent, living necessities, etc. I don't even want to calculate that part. I think I need to go change my shorts O__O.

About six months ago I had a patient who happened to be a doctor. He is an "Atomic Cardiologist." I asked if he blew up hearts for a living... He didn't get it. Anyways, we naturally got on the subject of school. Do you know how much this guy paid for medical school? $1,700 a semester... What? WHAT?! I told him to excuse me for a second, drove to the nearest Play-it-Again-Sports, bought a wiffle bat, came back, and beat him to death with it. Don't worry. I clocked out of work. I don't beat people to death with plastic toys on company time here people. I'm not an animal.

Ok no, the Heart Bomber wasn't beaten with anything except questions. Why has medical expenses gone up SO drastically? In the course of 40-50 years tuition experienced a near 2,000% increase. I wish that kind of increase would plague my poor excuse for a food pantry.

This tuition makes no sense. There is a shortage of doctors and an even bigger projected shortage. Yet, the powers that be continue making it increasingly impossible to pay for. Yep, that'll fix it. -________-. No wonder every doctor that learned of my acceptance into medical school has told me NOT to do it. 

I know what some of you are thinking, "Oh, but when you're a doctor you will be making so much money and will pay it off like THAT! =D" ... boy.... I'm going to slap you. I'm going to slap you like a bad bad donkey. First off, docs start paying back their loans the moment they graduate. Second, doctors going through their first 4 years (residency) are only paid around 35-40K a year. Third, a cardio-thoracic surgeon and head of the pediatric surgery department I shadow is STILL paying off his student loans... 30 years after going to school. Fourth, doctors have a ridiculous percentage they pay already for malpractice insurance.

It is a dream of mine to do charity work, missions trips, pay for and perform someone's surgery that can't afford it. But I fear I will not be able to do so with such a heavy debt looming over me. I am working two jobs, holding car washes, doing odd jobs here and there, making fundraising videos, everything I can but there is no way anyone can save for a $300,000 cold hard smack down.

However, whatever comes my way I know God will provide. This is what I am called to do. Staring down more than a quarter of a million dollars of debt and still going for it... There is a certain amount of crazy you need to reach before starting med school to even attempt it.... Yeah, I think I reached it. *twitch* ... *twitch,twitch*

Philippians 4:19
"And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus."

Matthew 6:26
"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"