Progress

I’m finally done with the bulk of these secondary applications. It hasn't been easy been my way through all data entry required by each of the schools, and the quantity of essays I’ve crafted is fairly staggering (I lost count somewhere around 20). I’ve had to put the pieces of the “why-I-am-a-fantastic-fit-in-Your-medical-community” puzzle together in many different ways, each time with different word (or character; or page) limit. I'm more sure than ever that I want to go to Medical School, but this application process has really taken a lot out of me so far.

To celebrate headway made I went out to the local bookstore and picked up some magazines. I think my interest in having magazines around is similar to Matt’s take on it – sometimes a magazine article provides just the right length for you to feel like you’ve gotten valuable things from it, without requiring investment of time or attention span necessary to make your way through a book. Perusing the magazine rack at the bookstore, I came across two gems: one is an old favorite of mine that I was surprised to see find in SA, and the other is a recently launched magazine produced here in South Africa.

The first journal I’m referring to is Scientific American Mind. Being the tremendous neuroscience geek that I am, I can’t even tell you how excited I was when I first saw this magazine on the rack in Grand Central Station during the summer of 2004. As far as I can tell, it's perfect blend of brain science and popular culture - acessable to scientists and non-scientists alike. At some point I even think I contemplated getting in touch with them to see if they had an internship available.

The second is a called Maverick. From their website: “Maverick is a magazine for business people who lack the herd instinct. Our readers have no time for accepted wisdom; that may explain why they are, generally, so much more successful than non-Maverick readers. To serve these readers, Maverick itself threw common wisdom out of the window right from the start.” The pieces are short but compelling, the writing is strong, the layout is beautiful, and the topics chosen seem to be uniformly interesting. If you’re a South African reader of this blog, you should go pick up a copy – but for those of you living elsewhere they do post some of the articles they deem most compelling on their website (linked above). I should also thank Tom for giving me the heads-up about the magazine's existence in the first place.

That’s it for now, but I’m working my way through some devastatingly interesting articles from the most recent issue of the South African Journal of HIV Medicine – hopefully I’ll be posting some excerpts and commentary in the coming days. Some selected titles from the table of contents:

The South African National Strategic Plan: What Does it Mean for Our Health System?
Challenges of TB Diagnosis and Treatment in South Africa
User Fees, Transport Costs, and the Ethics of Exemption: How Free is Free ART?

Pretty heavy/heady stuff, right? I’ll be back with the lowdown soon. Later.