 I've already been at this for a decade and I'm no closer right now to practicing medicine than I was back then. And I am tired of it. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of not making progress. I'm sick of not being a medical provider. I want this. I need this. My life is literally on the line. Like the life that I want is literally on the line. And that's why I took it so serious. Like that guy that I made fun of in high school and college who like, can I please get half a point back if I do this? I became that guy. I literally had to become that guy. I graduate undergrad with a 2.9 GPA. And also like zero health experience, zero shadowing, zero medical experience, just like absolutely no hope, no chance of getting into medical school or PA. How is this guy who has not been in college for five years who didn't do well in college at a non Ivy League school at just like a middle of the road, normal kind of a college, how is he supposed to get straight A's in all upper level courses at an Ivy League school? If you're advising me, does that sound like a smart idea? It sounds like a frickin' stupid idea. It sounds like the worst idea ever. On the road again. I can't wait to get on the road again. Oh man. I was talking to my friend the other day and they were saying how they watched like most of my videos. You know, maybe one of 15 people who do that so I told them, you know, big thank you. But they said like, how do you always film in your car? Why don't you film somewhere else? And I do actually film other places. I film in my office, back when I had my old place, I filled in my house. Now my new house is not, you know, set up for filming quite yet. But either way, I record in my car because that's literally the only time that I frickin' have to record that's reliable. Like every moment of my day is basically planned and basically like committed to something that I have to do, whether it be work, you know, leagues, like volleyball league that I'm in, class that I'm taking, other classes that I was taking, like my side business, my other side business, there's just like, there's no time in the day. But I still do want to, you know, put out some of the knowledge that I have and try to improve people's lives and try to grow this channel, you know, to reach more and more people and improve more and more lives. So hence, I mean like, I have no other time to record except for when I'm driving. So, you know, that's when, that's when I'm gonna have to drive or that's when I'm gonna have to record these videos. I know there's a little bit of ancillary noise from the, you know, from the road and from the wind. So it's probably not the optimal place and the optimal time to record. I'm also a little distracted, you know, being on the road, not dying, all that good stuff, driving. But you know, maybe one day I'll be working part-time and all my other little side gigs will be a little bit more, I don't know, a little more streamlined and requiring less of my time and attention and effort. So maybe I'll have more time for, you know, producing content, which I really, really love to do and sharing this knowledge and just helping people. But I mean, for the time being, this is what you guys are gonna have to deal with. So, you know, it is what it is. That being said, if you're new here, if you're new to my channel, my name is Boris. I'm a board certified physician assistant working in primary care and also medically supervised weight loss. And the topic of today's video, since I do have some time, I'm in the car for a long time. And I thought I'd actually spend a long time, maybe 15, 20 minutes explaining to you guys my pre-PA timeline. Excuse me. So from the time that I decided to practice medicine around 2007, 2008 to right now, 2022, when I'm actually practicing as a physician assistant and, you know, loving life, doing what it is that I've been wanting to do all these years. And if you're watching a video like this, you're probably watching it in hopes of, you know, learning from my mistakes, learning from the hacks and tricks that I've learned over these 10 to 15 years, trying to finally become a, you know, medical practitioner or physician assistant and maybe kind of shortcut your progress. Let's say you're not even the most competitive pre-PA applicant or maybe you're a pre-med or pre-nursing, whatever it is that you want to do. But maybe you're not the most competitive applicant. Still, you probably get, you probably want to get from point A to point B in less than, you know, 10, 15 years like it took me. So maybe you want to learn some of the hacks and tricks that I learned along the way, you know, through just straight up trial and error, through grit and through grind and through just not quitting. But all these things that I learned and that I want to share with you in this video, maybe some of these will speed up your progress from where you are to where you want to go. You know, where you are now, pre-PA, pre-med, pre-nursing, to where you want to go. You know, physician assistant, certified, get that C or RN or MD or DO or DT or PT or DDS or I don't know, what's doctor of chiropractic, DC. Whatever, like whatever it is you want to do, whatever reason you have for watching this video, let's see if maybe my story can help you get to where you are going faster, okay? So here we go, without further ado, let's do this. Also, I'm gonna sip some coffee. Hope you don't muck. All right, here we go. So 2007, the story begins. Dun, dun, dun. The story begins. 2007, I'm sitting in my dorm room at Rochester Institute of Technology, RIT, Think Nerdy Engineering School and I'm an industrial and systems engineering major. So not quite as nerdy as like electrical or computer engineering or even mechanical engineering, but still pretty nerdy enough. You gotta be good at math. You gotta be really like left brain, very logical, that kind of stuff, like systems, like machines, like processes, but not so much like dealing with people. And so when I was a high school senior, I was good at math and that's about the only thing I was good at and so I thought, why not become an engineer? So I decided to major in engineering and I applied to this really good engineering school and got in and was stoked about that, even though my GPA in high school wasn't so good, but somehow I still got into RIT and of course, you know, I took it, I went and within like one semester, actually even less than one semester, RIT does quarters. So instead of like a three and a half month semester, it's like a two and a half month quarter. So within one quarter, I was like, dude, this is not for me. I cannot stand engineering. I don't wanna be an engineer. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the people who are engineers and design all this crap that I love using, like these AirPods, which are phenomenal. My phone, my car, like all this stuff that I love. Yeah, like all the love to engineers, all the love in the world to engineers, but me personally, I was not born to be an engineer. Sorry, that was not for me. And so I realized this very, very quickly and I'm like, dude, I have got to get out of here. Like I was, I don't remember what the syndrome is called, but like you just like, you feel like the walls are closing in. You're just like, you do not wanna be there anymore. And that's how I felt about RIT and that's also how I felt about the field of engineering in general. And so I'm looking around like, dude, what do I do? Like I basically built this whole future, this whole future life of mine, this whole like fantasy of what my life is gonna be like around being an engineer. You know, getting out of school in like three more years, making really good money, you know, buying an Audi. I had like, I really wanted an Audi at the time. So I don't know, like I had this whole life planned out and now, you know, now that I don't wanna be an engineer anymore, the life is just kind of falling apart. I don't know what to do. And so I'm sitting there one day in this dorm room and I'm watching this show called Scrubs. I'm not sure if it's on TV anymore with Scrubs. And then JT, this main doctor, this main character that's supposed to be a doctor is talking to this patient and she's got this like terminal illness or something. And he's like basically treating her and like basically talking her through this. And what actually ends up happening, what's funny is he's not really talking her through it so much as she's talking him through it. You know, he's actually experiencing more stress about her, you know, being a terminal patient, dying eventually than she is. She's like, dude, I've had a wonderful life. I'm ready to go. I speak like a bunch of languages. I've seen every mountain top. You know, I am ready. I have lived everything that this life has to offer. And he's like, no, no, I can't let you go. And she's like, let me go. It's okay, JT. I got this. And so I don't know something about that reason, that interaction just like clicked for me. And I was like, dude, I wanna practice medicine. I don't know why, like what it is about this interaction that they had, but I was like, I want to practice medicine. And now looking back on it, I realize it's because of the human connection. It's because I wanted to learn how to make human connections and just like make them every single day in my career, in my life as a medical practitioner. At that time, I thought I wanted to be a doctor. I later found out I wanted to be a physician assistant. Long story short, this episode is what inspired me to go into medicine as a profession. And so if you know me personally, you know, I make rash decisions very quickly and I somehow stick with them for years and sometimes decades because when I know something is right, I know something is right. And I go after it with like all my heart and nerve and soul and I like put everything I have into it until I accomplish it. And when I know something is wrong, I pretty quickly go like, all right, this is not for me. I'm getting the F out of here. I'm done with this, whether it be a career, a school, a relationship, a city, a hobby, whatever. If I'm done with something, I'm done with it. I just like, I do not turn back. You know, I am, I'm all or nothing. If I'm all in on something, I'm all in on it. If I am not all in on it, I'm not in on it at all. So all or nothing kind of a person. And that's how I felt about engineering, that I was all out. I'm not gonna be in this anymore. I'm done. And that's how I felt about medicine after watching that video. Like dude, I am all in. I will do anything it takes to become, at that time, I thought, a doctor. So anyway, that's how I made the decision. And so I immediately start researching instead of doing my calculus and physics homework. I start researching pre-medical programs around me. What's a good pre-med school that I can go to, that I can get into as a transfer student. And it's also fairly close to home. I can still see my parents once or twice a year and don't have to move all the way across the country. And so long story short, I found one. It was in Pennsylvania. I applied, I got in, I transferred that year. So basically, I finished out my year at RIT. And then the very next fall, I started as a pre-medical student biology major at Allegheny College in Western Pennsylvania. So sure enough, I do very well my first semester. I got like a 3.4 or something, which for Allegheny is actually pretty good because it's a very rigorous school. Not super competitive, but 3.4 is pretty good. And then things kind of take a turn. I joined a fraternity. I joined the track team. I get a bunch of hobbies. I just like start having fun, doing a bunch of BS. And my GPA just plummets, 2.6. Bring it up to like a 2.8. Finally, bring it up to like a 3.0. Something graduate with a 2.9 cumulative. Total dog shit. Not competitive for med school. Not competitive for PA school. Not really competitive for any pre-medical program. And so I don't know why I wasn't really thinking about it. For some reason, I was prioritizing all these other things over getting good grades and doing what I have to do to actually reach my goal and my future of becoming a medical provider. And so either way, I graduate undergrad with a 2.9 GPA and also like zero health experience, zero shadowing, zero medical experience, just like absolutely no hope, no chance of getting into medical school or PA school or anything. And so I'm sitting there after graduating. I have my first biology job. I worked at a lab. Actually a pretty cool lab, pretty cool job. It was the National Cryon Disease Pathology and Surveillance Center that NPD, PSC at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Really cool job for someone who likes research, who wants to be in a lab. But again, I was like, I don't wanna be a lab tech. I can't stand research. I can't stand doing lab bench work. Like it was not for me. I wanted to do medicine. This was just the only job I could really get. That was decent with my background as a biology major. And so within six months, I'm looking around. I'm like, dude, I've got to get out of here. I've got to do something. This is not what I wanna do for the rest of my life at all. At all. And so I was getting that trapped feeling again. If you ever have that feeling, you know what it is. It's like you have got to get out of there at any cost. You know, this is not fulfilling. This is not for me. I have got to get out of here and I've got to do what I wanna do. And so of course, in the back of my mind, I'm still thinking like I wanna practice medicine. I wanna be a doctor. And at that point, I already knew what a PA was. So I was thinking like maybe I wanna be a PA or a doctor. I don't know, but I knew that I wasn't competitive. So like I wanted to do this, but I like I just had no chance, no hope of doing it. And so I'm sitting there thinking like, all right, God give me a sign. Like I need motivation. I need something. So going back to my freshman dorm room, you know, it was that episode of scrubs that really just triggered me to, you know, make a big left turn, a big left turn and just like go do something else and jump in with both feet and just do something else. And so that's what I was kind of looking for. I was waiting for that. And for whatever reason, I was on YouTube, you know, back in 2007 when YouTube was totally different than it is now. And I found this Navy SEAL video. I don't remember why, but it was just like, I don't know what I was searching or what I was looking at to make me see this thing. But I found this like Bud's, you know, basic underwater demolition explosive, whatever video where these Navy SEALs were getting trained and you know, conditioned and whatnot. And something about that just clicked. I was like, damn, I wanna be a SEAL. I think I wanna be a Navy SEAL. And so I go to the recruiter's office and he's like, yeah, that's probably not gonna happen. But you know, whatever, let me hook you up with this guy. You know, if you can run and swim and if you're a security clearance, all checks out, nothing sketchy in your past. You know, this guy says you can be a SEAL. Like, yeah, okay, maybe you can be a SEAL. Cause this guy was like some crazy like war hero. He was a Navy SEAL during like the Navy, during the Vietnam era or something. He was the original like frog man or one of the original frog men. Like he was a big deal. He was a badass. And so he's like, all right, talk to this guy. Go to the pool with him. You know, if he sees that you can swim really fast and you can run and do a bunch of pull-ups and you know, there's nothing sketchy in your past that you like can get the security clearance. All right, maybe you could possibly have a chance at being a SEAL. And so I meet up with this guy and a bunch of other little perspective wannabe SEALs. And so we go to the pool and he's like, yeah, dude, you can swim but you're, it's just not happening. You're not that fast. You're just not a crazy good swimmer. And yeah, you can run, you're okay. But like, you're not, you're just not, you don't have what it takes, buddy, like I'm sorry. And so like, whatever, at that point I was already talking to the recruiter and he's like, okay, well, so you're not gonna be a SEAL. Like we can already basically just ask that but you can do something else in the Navy. You know, there's all these other jobs and I'm like, no, screw this. All I wanna do is be a SEAL. Like that's the only cool job for me. And he's like, no, why don't you be like a Navy corpsman or something? You know, you're interested in medicine down the line. Why don't you be like a Navy corpsman? Which is basically just like a very base level medical job in the Navy. And they could do all kinds of stuff. Like they could do like something as simple as being like a dental assistant or like a CNA, like a medical assistant kind of a deal in the hospital. Or they could do some seriously badass stuff. Like they could go out with the Marines. You could be like an FMF corpsman, a Fleet Marine Force corpsman. And you can like treat, you know, battle injuries and be like a field medic and just do all this really cool stuff. And I'm like, oh yeah, I wanna be a badass. I'm 22, I'm all motivated. So yeah, let me do that. And so, you know, rash decision. I was all in and here it is. Now I'm like on my way to boot camp just a few months later. And so I'm ready for this. I like wanna be a Navy corpsman now, okay? Still in the back of my mind thinking like, yeah, I wanna go to med school. I wanna go to PA school. But you know, at this time, this is my path. Like I've got this 2.9 GPA. I've got no experience. Maybe joining the Navy for a few years, getting some medical experience. Maybe scooping up the GI bill so I can actually pay for grad school. Cause at this time I'm also like 50, 60 grand in debt, you know, from undergrad. Make it $30,000 a year as a lab tech. You know, no chance of paying this stuff off. No chance of really getting really good experience or raising my GPA or whatever. So like basically hopeless to get into med school or VA school. So I'm like, all right, whatever. Let's give the Navy a few years, five years of my life. Let's see if I can, you know, save some money, get the GI bill, get some medical experience, serve my country, of course, cause I was getting like mega patriotic at that time. And that's the one thing that still has not changed. I still love this country with my entire freaking heart. But that's not what this video's about. And so here we are. I'm 22, 2.9 GPA, no medical experience on my way to boot camp going to be a corpsman. You know, boot camp happens. You know, other big left turn happens. I ended up not becoming a corpsman. I was an honor guardsman and then ended up becoming like a yeoman, paperwork, going to Hawaii, doing all kinds of stuff, whatever. That's not important. Well, it's important, but it's not important for this video. So I do all this stuff through the Navy. I save a bunch of money. I save it, I think like 30 grand or something because I just never went out. I paid off all my, almost all my student loans. I had like maybe 10,000 left when I get out of the Navy. And basically like the plan is falling into place. I've paid off most of my debt. I've saved a bunch of money. I've got the GI bill, you know, I was discharged honorably so I can pay for grad school and not go into anymore debt. Like things are starting to fall into place. And also, you know, because I was still like never really left my mind that I want to be a medical provider. I also developed some relationships with some physician assistants through the Navy. I shadowed, I worked with them. I, you know, basically just realized time and time again that this is the job for me. I don't want to go to med school anymore. I'm getting too old for that. I don't want to spend 10 more years in school. I just want to do this now. I want to do this now. I want to practice medicine. I don't care if I have to like do it as a physician assistant versus a doctor. I just want to do this already. I'm tired of waiting. It's been long enough. And so fast forward to 2017. I'm out of the Navy. I've got a little bit of shadowing experience but not much. I didn't really take a lot of college classes. My GPA is still hovering around somewhere around 3.0. And so I want to get into PA school. So what do I do? I decide to go all in once again. High risk, high reward. I decide in my genius brain at the time that I'm going to do a post-bath. This big, expensive program, of course, the GI Bill paid it for it for me so it wasn't expensive for me. But this big, structured, year-long program at Cornell University where you basically take all these high-level science courses. Sorry, let me see. Pennsylvania Turnpike, I-80 East. One second. Let me just stop the video. OK, sorry about that. I'm driving to Pittsburgh to go see Metallica, right, with a couple of old friends from college. So I actually, I can't wait. If you've never seen Metallica live, I highly, highly, highly, highly recommend it. I saw them actually six months ago. And my friends and I kind of made this packed to see them twice a year, every year, until we die. Or until they die, they're a little bit older. Who knows who's going to go first? I'm sorry, that was morbid. But no, either way, they're just so good live. We want to see them. So I'm driving to Pittsburgh. And I had to turn the GPS on in my phone for a second. But either way, you did not need to know all that. I'm back to filming the video. So where were we? We were back at Postbam. So basically, just to rewind just a little bit, what is my situation? I want to get into PA school. I'm done with the med school thing. I want to do PA school. So what do I need for PA school? I need a very high GPA, which I did not have. And by the way, at this time, I had already applied once, did not get in. And they were like, yeah, dude, you have no experience in your grades, sock. There's no chance we're going to let you in. So I was like, all right. I obviously need to know what I need to do. And so I need a higher GPA. I need to improve my grades. And I also need medical experience hours, PCE, patient contact hours, patient care experience hours. And so I thought that the way to raise my grades, instead of taking endless classes to try to raise my little 3.0 GPA up to something competitive, 3.5, 3.6, which would take literally years at this point, because I had so many credits already. So that's just not feasible. What I thought I would do is another little extreme project was instead of just taking here and there classes for years, I wanted to just commit myself 100% again, jump in with both feet, and do the structured pre-medical post-bac at Cornell University. And I already talked to the Dean of the program that I wanted to get into, the program that I ended up graduating from, you know, Lemoine College, fantastic, fantastic program. If you're considering VA school, definitely, definitely consider Lemoine College's program. It is phenomenal, 100% phenomenal. But anyway, shameless plug for my alma mater. But anyway, so I talked to the Dean and I was like, all right, so be straight with me. How do I do this? Because I cannot really get my GPA up to where you would even look at it to 3.5, 3.6, it'll take me years, it's not worth it. And she's like, yeah, I agree. So I said, okay, so what if I do this? What if I do this post-bac program at Cornell University? I did like a Google search and I found it and it's like all upper level biology and chemistry courses, also some graduate level biology and chemistry courses and even some proprietary pre-med experience. It was a fantastic program. And what if I do this program and do pretty well, you know, get like a 3.5 or something in that? And like, will I be competitive then? Even though by the numbers, my cumulative GPA will not really budge. It might be 3.1 or 3.2 or something. But if I do very well in this program, you know, would you consider me? And she said, yes, but you need to do better than that. I want you to get straight A's. She literally told me, if you get straight A's in this program with yours, like I can't guarantee obviously that you'll get in but you will, you know, we will give you a second and maybe even a third look because that's very impressive. And so I was like, all right, done. You know, that's what I'm gonna do. No thought required. I'm not gonna think about how stupid of a decision this actually is. I'm just gonna jump in with both feet and do this. And I mean, a hindsight, in hindsight, it was actually a really incredibly risky decision. Like if I was advising myself right now, you know, doing a pre-PA coaching session and like somebody just like me was telling me that that's what they wanted to do. I would tell them, dude, you gotta think about this. This is not smart. This is extremely risky. On the upside, you know, yeah, you get more competitive, hopefully, to PA school. On the downside, you waste an entire year of your life. You get nothing out of this. You know, there's no master's degree. There's no career field. It's just a post-bac. It doesn't give you anything and you waste a whole bunch of money. You know, yeah, like I said, the GI bill was paying for mine, but if I didn't have the GI bill, I would be wasting like 70 grand intuition plus living expenses. I'd spend like close to $100,000 on this fricking post-bac, you know, and get nothing out of it, especially if I don't do very well, like exceeding the well, straight A's. And by the way, I'm not sure if you thought of it this way, which I definitely did not, which was stupid. I had not been in college for over five years at that point and I didn't even do well in college the first time. You know, I got a 3.0, 2.9 GPA, so I had been out of college, out of higher education for five years and I didn't even do well the first time around. And this is a fricking Ivy League school. So do the math. How is this guy who has not been in college for five years who didn't do well in college at a non-Ivy League school at just like a middle of the road, normal kind of a college, how is he supposed to get straight A's in all upper level courses at an Ivy League school? If you're advising me, does that sound like a smart idea? It sounds like a fricking stupid idea. It sounds like the worst idea ever. But me and my brilliant brain at the time was like, oh no, that's fine. I got this. I'm okay. I can get straight A's at Cornell University after not doing well in college ever, not knowing how to study ever and not having zero track record of getting good grades. Yeah, I could get straight A's at an Ivy League school. Sure, whatever. All right, long story short, I did. Yeah, seriously, I did. I got one B plus, and then I ended up getting one A plus that made up for it. So, and then like a couple A minuses. So I ended up graduating from the post-bac with a 3.9 GPA. And then I applied back to the PA school and I showed them that in the interview process. Somebody actually asked me, one of the people, one of the PAs interviewing me, they're like, dude, so what happened? You graduated with a 2.9 and then some way somehow you ended up getting a 3.9 at Cornell. Like, this does not compute, how did you go from being average to kind of stupid to doing very, very, very, very well? And I was like, you know, I can't really explain it, but I was actually motivated this time. I actually wanted it really badly. I was focused, I was a little older, I was a lot more mature, I was a lot more confident. You know, after being in the Navy for five years, I was more sure of myself. And for some reason, I just did much better. Going into that a little bit, what was the difference between undergrad and post-bac? Why did I do so much better in post-bac? Besides just being much more motivated, tangibly, what did I actually do? I actually took this, seriously, I actually took this stuff seriously. I did it just like beat my head against the wall and spend a few hours at the library. And you know, when I didn't learn anything, was like, all right, that's it, I'm going to bed. Like I did in undergrad, or hey, look at all these other cool activities. Yeah, weekends, yeah, sure, let's go party, let's go, you know, have fun, let's go do whatever, like, no, no, no. I did have a little bit of fun, but mostly I was sitting there studying day in, day out, all day, all night, no gym, almost no fun. I had, you know, I was engaged at the time, I had a fiance at the time, we have since split, but at that time, you know, I did take her out on some dates, we did do a few things, but mostly, like, and she'll tell you, I was just there in the books, Friday nights, Saturday nights, Sunday nights, every weekday, you know, goes without saying, I was in the books, and I was freaking out about it the whole time too, it was like, do or die, man. I mean, I slept between three and six hours every single night, during finals, it was closer to three, and I'm not really sure how I'm still alive, because like, that should not be possible, at least based on what I've experienced, like, that little sleep for that long should not be possible, and also to have a functioning brain enough to go to lecture, absorb things, study them, pass the exams, do very well on the exams, like, I don't know. I honestly don't really know how I did it, but I was so motivated that I just like, was single-focused, single-mind, single-track focused, I went on YouTube and just looked up study strategies, and watched literally every single video on study strategies, like, every video called how I memorized everything in nursing school, VA school, medical school, whatever, I watched every single one of those videos, and I implemented every single thing that they said. Some things worked for me, some things did not, but whatever the case may be, I just took it extremely, extremely serious like my life was on the line, because it was, guys, because my life was on the line. It had been 10 years at this point, this was 2017. I told you that I wanted to start practicing medicine, I decided that in 2007, a decade of my life, as a 30-year-old, a decade is a lot, you know, I was like 28, 29 at this time. A decade of your life is a lot, and I had already spent a decade doing this. So I was like, dude, I've already been at this for a decade and I'm no closer right now to practicing medicine than I was back then, and I am tired of it, I'm sick of it, I'm sick of not making progress, I'm sick of not being a medical provider, I want this, I need this, my life is literally on the line. Like the life that I want is literally on the line. And that's why I took it so serious. And that's why, you know, I, just by trial and error, straight up by trial, error, and motivation, I just tried every single study strategy that I could find on YouTube, that I could find by doing Google searches, I just literally just did it, implemented every single thing and some of them worked and then found what worked for me and repeated it, rinse, recycle, repeat, and you know, the rest is history. I think I got like a 3.7, 3.7, yeah, 3.7 GPA, my first semester, and then I took more credits and then, you know, did even better. Second semester, got like a 4. something because some of them I got eight pluses in and Cornell scale, you can't get higher than a 4.0 if you get an eight plus. Eight plus is like fricking impossible to get, it's like 98% or whatever, it's ridiculous. But I was that guy, that guy that I made fun of in high school and college who like, can I please get half a point back if I do this? I became that guy, I literally had to become that guy and even professors, fricking the nerdiest, smartest, most like, erudite professors at Cornell University were like, dude, you are too intense about this, it's only half a point, relax. And I was like, I cannot relax, my life depends on this, do you not get it? And then they, you know, had pity on me if anything probably, you know, and like gave me a half a point here, gave me a half a point there, gave me a quarter of a point here and some way, somehow I clawed and just like fought my way to that, you know, 3.9 GPA and the rest is history. You know, I got where I wanted to go. But anyway, so that's the grades aspect of it. So anyway, okay, so 2017, back to our little timeline. 2017, post back is over, you know, the grades are in the bag. I did what the Dean of admissions told me to do. She's like, dude, get straight A's and we'll consider you. Probably knowing that there's no freaking chance in hell I'm gonna get straight A's. Well, I got them, yeah? I got a 3.9. So that's in the bag. I couldn't believe it. And at this point, my confidence is through the roof. I'm like, dude, I can do anything. If I could do that, I could do anything. So I'm getting way more confident in myself and that probably showed in the interview process. And so I'm getting way more confident in myself as a student and thinking like, holy crap, this might actually happen. Like this dream of mine from 10 years ago might actually happen. It's insane. And so then all that's left, you know, I got the grades in the bag. I've got a pretty good experience, pretty cool life story, lots of life experience from the Navy. And so I got that in the bag. So I'm competitive. All I need now is hours, patient care experience hours. And so what do I do? I have like, I have no time. Like I am on a fast track. I do not want to spend six months becoming a paramedic. I don't want to become like a surgical tech. I don't want anything that's gonna take me a lot of time to train. So what do I do? I get the one medical job that's like high quality patient care experience that you don't actually need a certification for. A medical scribe. It's arguably the hardest medical job because you are working your ass off. And it's very, very hard. If anyone's been an emergency room scribe, it is not for the faint of heart. I mean, they make minimum wage and you have to know medical terminology very, very well. Deal with doctors, personalities at the emergency room which emotionally is very difficult. It is not an easy job. It is a very, very difficult job. But that's the one that I chose because you don't need any training and they're always hiring because no one wants to frickin' do it. Minimum wage for the weird hours and all that work, like nobody wants to be a scribe. But decided to be a scribe. And I got excellent experience out of it. But so that's what I decided to do just because I wanted to jump in and get those hours as quickly as possible and apply that year. I was not waiting around. I wanted to apply that year. I was done waiting. And so I became a medical scribe at the emergency room. And my genius asked, decided to actually become a supervisor of medical scribe, not just a medical scribe. I got hired by, it's now Scribe America but at that time it was Physicists which is no longer in business. But basically it's this big national company that trains medical scribes and they place them in various emergency rooms in doctor's offices. And so they train me and they're like, oh, you've got leadership experience from the Navy. So there's this team at this hospital that's not performing very well. The hospital's looking at getting rid of them. So I need you to learn this very difficult job very fast and also some way somehow turn this thing around and make the doctors happy with the scribe company. Can you do it? And I was like, yeah, that could do that. Long story short, I did not do it. I worked there for like six months and I was like, no, this is not. This is a sinking ship. I got wonderful experience. Thank you very much. I made some wonderful contacts through this experience but yeah, no, this is not gonna happen. And so for six months I did the scribe thing and then six months later I got a much chiller, much better, much better paid pre-medical job as a medical assistant at a gastroenterology office. I loved that job. That was much better. They paid like twice as much as I made as a scribe. The work was not easy but definitely, definitely much more chill than being a medical scribe. You know, I still got great experience. But either way, so that's how I got my patient contact hours during that year right after post-bac. And if you notice a trend here, I don't rest. I don't stop until I get where I wanna go. So there was no like, all right, I finished post-bac. Let's just, I don't know, let's take six months off. Let's, let's recuperate. Let's be nice to myself. F that, no, I wanted to get where I wanted to go. And so I immediately, literally the week or I think like two days after graduating from post-bac, that was my first scribe shift. It was an overnight, by the way. And so I started scribing right a freaking way. So I started getting hours. And then as soon as I quit the scribe job, I had another job lined up. You know, the very next day, I was starting at the gastropractice. Actually, I brought my scrubs to the interview and they're like, all right, cool. You know, like, you're good. We wanna hire you. When can you start? And I was like, how about right now? And so they were like, are you serious? I was like, yeah, I've got scrubs in the car. Let's do this right now. Again, the manager was just like, okay, we're not used to this level of motivation, sir. But yeah, we'll hire you and you can start right now. And I was like, can I start getting paid and start getting experience hours for PA school right now? And she's like, yeah. And so I put on my scrubs and I started working that day that I interviewed. So basically that happened. And within two months, I think it was, I wanna say February 28th. I could have the date wrong, but I think February 28th, 2019, if I'm not mistaken, maybe 2018. I got that phone call that I'll never forget. Oh, crap, traffic. Lots of traffic. What's going on? Ooh, Stan Snow traffic on I-76. How do you like that? Anyway, I got that phone call that I will never forget. It was that dean of admissions that had told me, you know, to go get straight A's and basically talking how to get into PA school. You know, knowing that it was a huge long shot for me, but that same dean of admissions, she called me and left me a voicemail because I was at work. And the voicemail was like, Boris, you won't believe this, but we've selected you. You know, you got a space in the incoming class of 2021 at Lemoine College's Physician Assistant Program. Congratulations, bud, you're in. And you know, the rest is history. Then it was two years of PA school. And down here, thank you for watching.