Open letter to the writers of recommendation letters

Hello out there to the professors, doctors, teachers, bosses, mentors, supervisors, counselors, and advisors. If you are in the position of writing a letter of recommendation for someone, whether it be for medical school, college, graduate school, law school, dental school (what? as if!), vet school, or any other institution of higher learning, this note's for you.

There are some requests, humble requests if you will, that will make this arduous process a little better for everyone involved.

1) Please respond to our request for a letter.

Let me boost your ego a bit- you are a very special someone. There is a candidate out there who feels that your impression of them is awesome. They admire you, they feel you know them relatively well, and they must feel you're an articulate person. They love you. They need you. They WANT you. What do they want from you? To friggin' respond to their request! If you've been approached by someone asking you to write a letter for them, answer the email! Or the text, voicemail, smoke signal, whatever. Holy cow, if you hate Bob because he ate onion and garlic bagels every morning during speech class, and there's no way on God's green earth you would ever recommend him to law school, then send Bob an email letting him know you're too busy. Or that you're washing your hair. Or that you hate him for stinking up your damn classroom everyday, whatever, just respond to the email. Don't get on your mental high horse and look down your nose at the pitiful peasant begging for scraps of praise, mentally laughing about how you make him email you over and over again because you're in a position of power. I'll bet my last bagel that Bob knows you're busy- you don't need to remind him that you're an asshole too. It takes 10 seconds to respond. Here, let me help you with some templates:

"My apologies, I'm too busy right now, but I wish you all the best in grad school!"

"I'd love to, please send me your CV, personal statement, and anything you'd like me to address, along with your deadline."

2) Please write us an original letter. Please.

I know there are those candidates out there who asked for a recommendation from their bus driver because they were going for quantity over quality, but for the most part, people put a lot of thought into whom they approach for a letter. They incessantly wonder if the letter writer knows them well enough, would praise them enough, likes them enough, anything that would hint that they are able to telling a school that they are a good candidate. Those letters are important- they are supposed to describe us as potential students, doctors, lawyers, dentists (seriously, why?!), veterinarians, etc. So when you write the same letter for Bart as you do Lisa, the letter is totally worthless, and we become worthless to the school. The purpose of your letter, the time and effort that went into us tracking you down and bugging you for a reply all becomes for naught, and highly evident we should have asked someone else.

3) Please send the letter on time.

You are an awesome person- you said yes to the request and your student is beaming with pride that their professor thinks highly enough of them that they are getting a letter from their mentor! They mentally check off that letter, smile, and sit back and wait. And wait. Unfortunately, maybe they need to enter your name into a clearinghouse application and associate it with a number of potential schools. Maybe all other letters have been received besides yours, but they can't submit their app to the schools yet until yours arrives. Maybe their application just sits there forever, lying in wait like a virgin waiting for her husband, to where eventually that application becomes an old spinster with 30 cats. So for all that is holy, please, PLEASE send the letter on time.

Thank you for considering these requests. And continue to be proud that you influenced someone enough that they want YOUR recommendation. Keep up the good work, and keep on writing those letters.

40 days deja vu

I have 40 days until my test (gee, I think I've written this before...) Anyway, it's all systems normal over here- me stressing out about the MCAT, refusing to study (for even my college class), allowing more and more responsibilities to pile up until I start to falter under their weight, etc. I'm trying to take baby steps, to do a little each day to get my ball rolling, but even that has fallen short- I've started doing more things around the house, not stuff for school. In the past few days I've done all the laundry, the dishes, and the neat-ening up that I can. I'm here at work, ready and able to study, but oh so NOT willing. Hence the blogging.

My test is on July 2, I leave on a road trip for grad school on Aug 3, and I start school on the 20th. I have no more time to procrastinate.

I'm sick of working!

ARGH! I am working *again* this evening! I thought I had a whole weekend off- I had planned on basking in the spring weather, drinking a beer (or five), having some decent food that didn't come from a dingy fluorescent-lit cafeteria, maybe do a little yard work, etc. But NO! I'm here, again, at the hospital. I really shouldn't complain, as we really need the money, but I also really need a break. I'm tired and I miss my family.

Besides being tired, I've also developed the inability to concentrate and focus. I feel like my brain is moving at 100 mph and I can barely keep up with it. I rush to the end of sentences that I read, as if I'm in a race to get to the end. I don't comprehend anything, I can't remember what I read, and I rush through the material as if I'm being chased by a hungry lion. I can't sit still half the time- I tap my toes, shake my foot, or constantly play with my hair. I get esophageal spasms in the middle of the night, anxiety attacks while driving, and dizziness at least once a day. I've never really had these things before and it's pretty unsettling, not to mention highly contradictory to retaining important information. My best friend recommended going to my doctor to see if there's anything I can do about it all. He took some anti-anxiety meds for a few days when he was overwhelmed at work. I've never taken any kind of "mental" meds before and I'm extremely leery of doing so. Any thoughts out there?

I'm such a wuss

I changed the date again.

I feel your raised eyebrow and tsk-tsking head shaking. Don't judge me! I already know I'm a weakling who can't seem to stop working 60 hour weeks and fit in studying! In the month of April I probably worked about 250 hours. It was *insane*. I went for a few days at a time without seeing my son, I passed by my husband as I was either getting up when he was going to sleep, or vice versa, and I didn't leave the hospital for nearly 24 hours at one point. I actually started to hate the hospital, my pager, my email, and my scrubs. When my pager went off last weekend at midnight after already working a 14 hour day, I felt severe hatred towards my beeper tone- I figured that's what hell sounded like. To cap off the month from hell, I will end up working for 48 hours starting in 7 hours. When did I go crazy?!

And I'm not even a med student, much less a resident. I can't imagine how I will feel once I reach my intern year.

Ugh, I feel like a failure sometimes because I can't clear this hurdle. Anyone else out there able to commiserate?