Reality check

Some days I really wonder what is going to happen to the profession I've chosen and worked so hard to get into. I am legitimately frightened that many future graduates will do nothing, but pull down the profession as a whole. I'm not the brightest crayon in the box, nor the sharpest tool in the shed. I've had a long hard fight to get where I am today. I had a second year look at me in disbelief at how genuinely excited I was to have made the Dean's List. Then she didn't believe me when I told her it was the first time. Ever.

My undergrad GPA was less than stellar, and barely met the minimum requirements. The only reason it went slight over the minimum requirements is because I spent 3 years post-undergrad working my ass off and going to school to bring up my GPA.

Most of my classmates now don't believe me when I tell them my undergrad GPA was atrociously bad. I'll admit it, I've failed more than one course. It's not something I go telling people at school, but I find it interesting that someone like me has been able to shake off that not so stellar past and have succeeded beyond even my own expectations. So far. I study harder than most people think I do. I really hate it when people write off all that hard work I put in to me "just being smart". Right-o buddy. They can believe whatever they want.

I guess when people say some of the people that had the mediocre or low GPA really shine in pharmacy school were right. I love the profession and I am damn excited and terrified of all the new information to come in the next few years.

I just hope some of the fools pick up a thing or two, get some real life experience and make themselves a useful professional in the next 3 years.

What do they call a pharmacy student that graduates with a 2.0? Doctor/Pharmacist.

But to be honest, GPA isn't everything. It's what you learn and how you are able to apply it. I'm just slightly scared that I can single out a few people I hope to whatever deity that never have someone's life in their hands because they can't tell a capsule from a suppository. My preceptor was genuinely shocked that I knew basic counseling points on antibiotics. Those are some low standards. Apparently one of my classmates almost switched a two patients' medications at their site, warfarin and atenolol. Thank god it was caught. We've covered warfarin and atenolol several times in different courses. Several. The fact that she couldn't comprehend the consequences of that mistake had it been given to the patient makes me want to slap her.

If only common sense was a skill that could be taught.