Here’s a clip my buddy Richard shot of me and Krystal performing at DeChamps’ open mic night on one of our rare nights off from studying. We started the set with an 80s, 90s, 2000s medley that included Journey, Backstreet Boys, and Adele (listen here), before going into an acoustic version of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” and then ending with T-Pain’s “Buy You a Drank.”

I’m playing the Martin LXM “Little Martin” sent to me by Dick Boak, head of Artist Relations and PR for C.F. Martin & Co. with an “artist discount” since I wasn’t able to take my full sized Martin dreadnaught with me to medical school. If you haven’t heard that story, it’s pretty awesome.

Frankly, I’m sick and tired of hearing people bitch about Ross University. You can’t walk from the library to the anatomy lab without hearing someone whining about the quality of the online video lectures, the fact that our anatomy lab practical was switched from multiple choice to fill in the blank, the increased minimum passing score, or the amount of information we get thrown at us by condensing 2 years of basic sciences into 16 months. You know what? It’s medical school; sack up.

If you don’t think the video-lectures are good, get your lazy ass out of bed at 7am and go sit in lecture in person. No one is forcing you to watch them after the fact. You want multiple choice anatomy practicals? When was the last time a patient came into a doctor’s office and said “Hey Doc, I don’t feel well, which of these 5 diseases do I have?” And as for MPS being bumped to a 70 let’s be honest, if you can’t consistently score a 70% you shouldn’t be allowed to go out and take a patient’s well-being into your hands during clinical rotations.

Yes, we are in a Caribbean medical school. No, things aren’t perfect—but they aren’t perfect at any school regardless of location. Stop complaining that “At US medical schools they blah blah blah.” You didn’t get in to a US medical school. Face it. You are at Ross for a reason; whether it was a sub-par GPA, a bad MCAT score, or poor extra-curriculars, you earned your spot here at Ross. And you know what? Thousands of other student’s didn’t get in.

To the students who look at Ross and say, “Well half the entering class fails out! They’re trying to fail us!” all I have to say is that Ross gave us a chance where other schools didn’t. What you do with that chance is entirely up to you. You can either piss it away with the same bad habits that kept you out of a US school or you can decide “Fuck those admissions committees back home, I’m going be a great doctor with or without them” and you bust your ass.

There’s a reason that Ross is one of only three Caribbean medical schools whose students can receive federal loans and who are licensed to practice in all 50 states. There’s a reason Ross students score better than the US National average on the USMLE Step 1. There’s a reason that Ross has more graduates accepted into US residencies annually than any other school. There’s a reason that Ross graduates can be found in every sub-specialty of medicine. 

Stop complaining.

/End Rant.