This story is part of the Journey to MD series. Indiana University School of Medicine student Mout-Maine Moustapha shares his insights at the halfway point of medical school, pausing to reflect on personal growth while anticipating new experiences as he enters clinical rotations.
When I walked into medical school for the first time, I thought I understood what I was signing up for. I expected long nights, difficult exams and an overwhelming amount of information. I expected stress. I expected sacrifice. What I did not expect was how much these first two years would reshape the way I think, learn and view myself.
The preclinical years of medical school are strange because life starts revolving around things that most people outside of medicine never see. Entire weeks become organized around exam dates. You measure time in blocks, case-based learning days and lecture hours. Some days feel incredibly meaningful, while others feel like you are just trying to survive until the next deadline.
And yet, somewhere between anatomy lab, patient encounters, mentorship conversations, leadership responsibilities and late-night study sessions, I realized these first two years were teaching me far more than medicine alone.
As I prepare to transition into clinical rotations, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on the lessons that stayed with me the most.
1. You will never truly feel “caught up” — that is normal!
One of the hardest adjustments for me during medical school was realizing that the work never really ends.
Before medical school, I was used to the idea that if I worked hard enough, I could eventually reach a point where everything was finished. In undergrad, there were moments after exams where I genuinely felt “done.” Medical school is different. There is always another lecture waiting for you, another Anki review deck piling up, another practice question set somebody says is “high yield.”
At first, that reality stressed me out constantly. I remember feeling guilty any time I stepped away from studying because there was always something else I could have been doing. Even when taking breaks, my mind would drift back to what I had not yet reviewed.
Eventually, though, I started to embrace the fact that nobody ever fully feels caught up in medical school.
Once I accepted that, my mindset started changing. I stopped chasing the impossible goal of “mastering everything” and started focusing on consistency instead. I learned that success in medical school is less about having perfect days and more about continuing to move forward even when things feel overwhelming.
Some days were incredibly productive. Other days were frustrating, exhausting or mentally draining. But over time, I realized that steady effort matters more than occasional bursts of perfection. Ironically, I became a healthier and more effective student once I stopped measuring myself by whether I had completed every single task on my to-do list.
Medical school taught me that there is a difference between ambition and self-destruction.
2. Comparison will drain you faster than studying ever will.
One of the quietest but most difficult parts of medical school is how easy it is to compare yourself to everybody around you — and I did this all the time!
You are surrounded by incredibly intelligent, hardworking people. Everyone seems to have their own study system, their own accomplishments and their own way of handling stress. Some people finish lectures at double speed before noon. Others are involved in research, leadership and volunteering while somehow still excelling academically.
There were moments during my first year where I constantly questioned whether I was doing enough.
Am I studying the right way? Am I behind? How are other people balancing all of this better than me?
The problem with comparison in medical school is that you usually compare your weaknesses to someone else’s strengths. You see the areas where other people appear confident without fully seeing the struggles happening behind the scenes.
Over time, I realized that almost everyone in medical school is struggling with something, even if they hide it well. Some people struggle academically. Some struggle mentally. Some struggle socially. Others struggle with confidence, burnout or simply maintaining balance.
Once I stopped treating medical school like a competition against my classmates, I started enjoying the process much more. I became more comfortable focusing on what worked for me instead of trying to imitate everyone else.
I also learned that confidence in medicine is built slowly. It comes from repeatedly showing up, adapting and continuing forward despite uncertainty. I experienced imposter syndrome at a high peak in the beginning, especially when I felt like I knew less about medicine compared to my classmates, but confidence comes over time through consistency.
3. Your study methods will constantly evolve.
When I started med school, I realized that I had no clue how to truly study. Since the content was vastly different from anything I had ever done in my life, it required a different approach.
Biochem and genetics humbled me. Then medical physiology humbled me even more.
Medical school exposed weaknesses in my learning habits that I did not know existed. What worked perfectly for one block suddenly became ineffective in another. I went through phases of trying different resources, different schedules and different systems because I kept searching for the “perfect” method. Eventually, I realized there is no perfect method.
One of the biggest lessons I learned is that studying in medical school is deeply personal. Some students thrive using flashcards for everything. Others need diagrams, whiteboards or group discussions. Some people need structure down to the hour, while others perform better with flexibility.
For a while, I felt pressured to study the way everybody else seemed to study. But over time, I realized I retain information best when I understand concepts visually and logically rather than simply memorizing isolated facts, something I had essentially been doing my whole life prior to medicine. Once I leaned into that, studying became far more effective and less miserable.
I started spending more time understanding relationships between concepts instead of trying to brute-force memorize every detail immediately. Drawing pathways, teaching concepts out loud and connecting material to patient scenarios helped me retain information much longer. I learned that practice questions are the best ways to truly learn and test your knowledge.
Medical school also taught me that adaptability matters more than rigidity. Every new subject challenged me differently, and learning how to adjust became just as important as learning the material itself.
4. The people around you can make or break your experience — find your village!
Before starting medical school, I expected the environment to feel highly competitive. Instead, one of the things that surprised me most was how much I came to rely on the people around me.
Some of my favorite memories from these first two years had nothing to do with grades or exams. They came from moments after difficult tests when everyone collectively looked exhausted but relieved. They came from spontaneous conversations during study breaks, late-night review sessions and the realization that everyone was trying to survive the same challenges together.
There is something comforting about being surrounded by people who truly understand what you are experiencing without needing lengthy explanations.
Medical school can become isolating very quickly if you try to carry everything alone. Having classmates, friends and mentors who remind you that you are not the only person struggling makes an enormous difference. Though it would naturally feel daunting, I would always look forward to exam week because after every exam, my friends and I go out to get food, ice cream or watch movies together. I also learned that the quality of your environment matters more than you think.
Being around people who encourage you, motivate you and genuinely want to see you succeed can completely change how manageable medical school feels. There were many moments where conversations with classmates or mentors gave me reassurance that I did not even realize I needed.
Medicine is demanding enough already. Having the right people around you helps make the difficult moments survivable.
5. Sometimes you need experiences that remind you why you started.
One thing nobody warns you about is how repetitive preclinical life can become.
There are stretches of medical school where your entire existence feels reduced to watching lectures, reviewing flashcards and preparing for exams. Over time, studying medicine can start feeling strangely disconnected from the reason you entered it in the first place.
I realized pretty quickly that I needed moments that reconnect me to the bigger picture.
For me, some of those moments came through hands-on experiences outside the classroom — events like surgical skills workshops, clinical simulations and opportunities to actually engage with medicine in a tangible way. There was something refreshing about stepping away from my laptop and remembering that medicine is ultimately about people, teamwork and practical skills rather than endless PowerPoint slides.
I remember how motivating it felt to attend events where physicians spoke passionately about their specialties or where students practiced procedural skills for the first time. Those experiences made the future feel real again. They reminded me that all the exhausting studying eventually leads somewhere meaningful.
What surprised me most was how powerful those moments could be mentally. One afternoon spent doing something hands-on restored my motivation more than an entire weekend spent forcing myself to study and trying to make it enjoyable.
I learned that sustaining passion requires intentional effort. You cannot wait until motivation magically returns on its own. Sometimes you have to actively seek out the experiences that remind you why you wanted this career in the first place.
6. Finding mentors changes everything.
One of the most valuable things I did during medical school was find people who were a few steps ahead of me and learn from them.
Early on, medical school felt overwhelming partly because there were so many things nobody explicitly teaches you. There is an entire “hidden curriculum” surrounding medicine that includes how to study efficiently, how to prepare for boards, how to find opportunities, how to network and how to navigate career interests.
At times, it genuinely felt like everyone else already knew information I had somehow missed. That is why mentorship became so important to me.
Some of the most helpful advice I received came from older medical students and residents who still remembered exactly what it felt like to be where I was. I found it especially useful connecting with mentors who studied similarly to me or approached learning in ways I could relate to. They helped normalize things I thought I was struggling with alone. They also gave practical advice that saved me from wasting enormous amounts of time trying to figure everything out independently.
One lesson I learned quickly is that opportunities in medicine often come from simply reaching out. At first, cold emailing people felt intimidating. I worried about bothering physicians or sounding inexperienced. But eventually I realized many people are far more willing to help than students assume.
Some of the best conversations and opportunities I experienced during these first two years happened because I decided to send an email instead of overthinking whether I was “qualified” enough to ask. Medicine can sometimes feel gatekept from the outside, especially when you are still learning how the system works. But I learned that closed mouths really do not get fed.
You lose far more opportunities by staying silent than by risking rejection.
7. Community engagement can help you keep your identity outside of medicine.
One thing I worried about before starting medical school was losing myself in the process.
Medical school has a way of consuming your time, attention and mental energy so completely that it can slowly shrink your identity down to a single role: student. There were periods where my entire routine revolved around lectures, studying and exams, and after a while I realized how easy it would be to let medicine become the only thing about me.
What helped prevent that was continuing to stay involved in things that mattered to me outside the classroom.
Even during the busiest parts of school, I found that leadership, mentorship and service gave me a sense of balance that academics alone could not provide. Ironically, the more stressful medical school became, the more important those experiences felt.
There is something grounding about helping someone else while you are struggling yourself. Mentoring younger students, supporting peers or participating in community-oriented work reminded me that my value was not tied only to exam scores or academic performance. It also reminded me why interpersonal skills matter so much in medicine.
Some of the people I admire most in healthcare are not necessarily the ones with the most impressive resumes. They are the people who know how to make others feel heard, respected and supported. The physicians who left the biggest impact on me during these first two years were the ones who treated people with sincerity and humanity, even when they were busy.
Medical school taught me that becoming a good physician is not just about accumulating knowledge. It is also about becoming the type of person others trust during vulnerable moments of their lives. And honestly, staying involved outside of academics probably protected me from burnout more than I realized at the time.
When all of your self-worth depends on school performance, every setback feels personal. Having meaningful responsibilities and relationships outside of studying creates perspective. It reminds you that medicine is part of your life, not your entire identity.
Final Reflection
If I could go back and talk to the version of myself who was about to start medical school, I honestly do not think I would give him advice about grades or study schedules first.
I would probably tell him this instead:
You are going to struggle sometimes. You are going to doubt yourself sometimes. You are going to feel overwhelmed more times than you expect. But you are also going to grow in ways you cannot currently imagine.
These first two years taught me discipline, adaptability and humility. They taught me how important community and mentorship are. They taught me that burnout cannot always be solved by studying harder and that sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is reconnect with the reason you started.
Most importantly, they taught me that becoming a physician is not just an academic process. It is a personal one, too.
And while I still have an unbelievable amount to learn, I can finally look back at these first two years and appreciate not only what they taught me about medicine, but what they taught me about myself.
About this series: The Journey to MD series is following two Indiana University School of Medicine students throughout their four-year academic journeys as medical students, chronicling their experiences from orientation week through graduation. Mout-Maine Moustapha is president of the Class of 2028 and is on the school’s Indianapolis campus, while Sarah Vaught is on a regional campus in West Lafayette, Indiana. Read more stories about their medical school experiences.
