Zero-Stress Prep: What to Actually Do Before Year One

Medical school will push you into panic mode if you let it. When adrenaline spikes and the heavy workload hits, the first things students usually throw overboard are sleep, nutrition, and exercise, the exact habits required to keep the brain functioning under pressure. This conversation is about stopping that desperation cycle before it starts so you can actually thrive during four grueling years of education. We sit down with medical student and former Division III college athlete Jacorey Jackson to break down how he applies a rigorous athlete's mindset to the daily demands of medical school.

We get into the direct connection between aerobic exercise and cognitive performance, examining why a physical workout is actually vital for study time for your nervous system. Jacorey shares how he transitioned from civil engineering spreadsheets to biochemistry, the trial-and-error process of scheduling study blocks around non-negotiable gym time, and how to avoid the trap of the sympathetic nervous system stress response. We also dig into the surprising level of peer cooperation in medical cohorts and how to handle social media algorithms designed to steal your focus with instant gratification. The secret sauce of his approach lies in treating well-being as a strict operational boundary rather than a luxury, ensuring you never sacrifice the physical machine that drives your mental output.

The hardest part of this journey isn't just memorizing the vast volume of material; it is fighting the urge to self-isolate and double down when you hit an academic wall. When grades drop or a concept won't stick, high achievers naturally want to beat their heads against the desk for hours instead of doing the difficult work of stepping away to reset. You will walk away from this conversation with a practical framework for setting daily boundaries, a reality check on why asking for help is a sign of resilience rather than weakness, and a counterintuitive strategy for incoming students that involves doing zero academic prep before day one.

If you care about cognitive performance, sustainable study habits, and maintaining your identity under intense pressure, you’ll get a lot from this. Hit the subscribe button to follow our ongoing guide to thriving in medical school, and share this episode with a classmate or future student who needs a reminder to step away from the desk. What is one non-negotiable daily habit you refuse to sacrifice for your studies or career? Let us know in the comments below.

@arkansasstatemedianetowrk.com.

0:00 - From College Football to Medical School
06:12 - How Athletic Discipline Prepares You for Med School
12:04 - Why You Can't Sacrifice Exercise and Sleep
15:48 - Overcoming Competition and Comparison
26:03 - The Real Strength: Asking for Help
28:31 - How to Prepare for Year One and Remember Your "Why"

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Hi, thanks for watching today's episode of Student Doc 101, a guide to thriving in medical school. I'm your host, Michael Stonet. I'm a medical education learning specialist with NYITCOM at Arkansas State University. And I have with me today Jakori Jackson. Jakori, thanks for being on the show. Glad to be here, Mr. Mike. Yeah, really excited to get to talk to you. Today's show, the mission of this whole thing is peeling back the curtain of medical school to let people get a glimpse on the inside. Okay. Because here's what we know, right? Would you agree that medical school is hard?

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

Right. But would you also agree that you can do well? Oh, yeah. Right. And so that's what we're doing. We just want to be like, hey, we know it's hard, but you don't have to suffer always. Right. You can flourish. Right. You can thrive. Right. And so we're going to talk to Jakori today about how he has been able to do that. So thanks for tuning in. Stick with us till the end, and you're going to learn a lot of really cool things. All right, Jakori. Right. Tell us about you. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Let's see. Grew up in Houston, Texas. Uh, born and bred there. Uh, I was a student athlete, middle school, high school, and college, play defensive anime, right? And I look like it right now. That was about 40 pounds ago, but you know. I mean, you look fit.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Ah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Yeah, yeah. I'm still trying to chase them numbers still, but you know, uh, played band. You know, I played trombone. Uh, so I did that. Um you were busy. Oh, I I always had to be. My dad would say, like, you're not gonna stay here and do nothing. That was that's just what my dad was. He said, if you're gonna leave in this house, you're gonna do something. And I I took that with flying colors. Well, good for you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Good for you. Uh, so tell us like anything in your background, particularly you think is like core to has made you who you are?

SPEAKER_00 1:56

My family. Uh my family. Uh, I feel like they've just been kind of like a a bedrock for me, like a foundation of, okay, this is what we expect from you. You know, this is what we want for you. But at the end of the day, they kind of let the choice up to me for what we want to do. Like I said, like my dad, like he, my dad, my uncle, my grandfather, all these strong men in my life, they've just kind of just been like a guy post for me, almost like, okay, this is this is the example. This is what I need to live up to, or maybe even exceed, right? I love it.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

Yeah, that's so good. That's so good. So, at what point did you say, hey, I want to do really hard things and I want to go to medical school? I want to be a doctor.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

You know, that's a little bit of a zigzag approach. Um, so originally didn't want to go to medical school. I didn't. I actually wanted to be an engineer, believe it or not. All right. I did. I so I got an offer to play Division III College Ball up in Merville, Tennessee, of all places. Uh, went there. Uh it was a it wasn't an athletic scholarship, it was actually an academic scholarship. And the way that that worked was I had to pick a major, I also had to volunteer there. Uh it was cool. I liked it, you know. I got to play ball and I got to play sports. Um, and I got to, you know, study what I wanted to study. But what I decided to do was, in part of that scholarship with the volunteer work, you also had to volunteer in the community, right? I decided, okay, I want to do this engineering gig. I need to volunteer. Why don't I combine the two, right? Double dip. So that's what I did. I found a civil engineering program there uh through the city. Uh, and I took an internship there one year. And I hated it. Not gonna lie, I hated it. Um, I don't know, just something about sitting at a desk working on an Excel spreadsheet for hours at a time. Just didn't push your buttons. No, no, it didn't. It didn't. Um, so I remember that fresh after that second semester freshman year, I was kind of like, okay, I need to figure this out. You know, I need to figure something out because I'm not about to just waste these credits I just got, right? So I started talking around with some of my uh peer groups, some of my friends, and a lot of them were already doing medicine. Um, I kind of didn't want to do medicine because I had, okay, so for instance, like my uncle, I've always been compared to my uncle when I was growing up. And it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just the way I am, the way I'm hardwired, I kind of just want to do things on my on my own. Sure, you know, be my own guy, right? So when I heard medicine, I was kind of like, oh, no, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that. I don't I don't I don't want to be compared to me even more than I am now, right? And eventually I just had a change of mindset, I guess, you know, because I just saw that a lot of the things that my friends were doing, a lot of the things that I wanted for my life and what that I found interesting, it kind of aligned with medicine. It did. So I made that jump. Um, I decided to go to my counselor, talk to them, get all my courses changed, uh, which was kind of funny because my main counselor wasn't even here. Uh, Dr. Softis, shout out to Dr. Softis, by the way. Uh, she was actually on sabbatical at the time. She was so mad. Oh my gosh, she was so mad when I left. I remember getting called into her office and she was just a little short, uh, Greek lady. Oh man, it's just this lovely woman. But oh my gosh, she was just like, How could you?

SPEAKER_01 5:36

And I was like, What do you mean? She's like, How could you leave? I was I'm sorry, Dr. S. I'm sorry. I don't, I, I just, I, it didn't speak to me. And she was like, It's okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

It's okay. I I I still support you. I just I I wish you would have stayed. And I was like, okay, I'll still say hi in Holland. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Right? They wanted you in the program. That's true. That's that's really cool. It's neat. That's neat. So tell us, like, okay, boom, decided to get your classes changed and ended up what you so what'd you get your degree in? Biochemistry. Biochemistry. Yep. Awesome. And playing football. Mm-hmm. Playing football. Do you think that trying to balance your schedule for training, practice, games, study, volunteering, having to balance all of those things, uh, that that in some way prepped you for the difficulty of med school?

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Oh, immensely. Immensely. I I would not have been able to get through undergrad doing all the things I did if I wasn't one communicating with the people I needed to communicate with, setting boundaries, right? Okay, like for instance, when I mean by boundaries, like, okay, this is the time that I have dedicated for this, this is the time I have dedicated for that, and I can't cross over. I I cannot cross over. Right. Um, but then also realizing, okay, again, the third thing, I feel like this is one of the most important things. Okay, what am I doing this for? Right. Like what's the what's the end goal? Right. And for me, it was I want to get through undergrad. I want to get to medical school, and I want to be able to do the things that I want in my life, right? And I just had to remember that the whole entire time uh while I was an undergrad. And doing all those things have just naturally kind of just kind of carried over to here medical school, right? Um, because again, I feel like that's that's all medical school is, right? It's uh ultimately uh boils down to how bad do you want it, right? It's gonna be hard, it's gonna be grueling, um, but it's also fulfilling in a way.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

You know, sure. Um, because this is ultimately what we what we all signed up for, right? Um, this is all this is what we've all just been kind of working towards, uh, what we've been staying up all night for, what we've been studying for, just this, this lifestyle.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

That's it. Yeah. That's it. And just knowing, again, you've mentioned a couple of times right there that you're like, this is gonna be hard. Um, but we get to choose our hard. Right. Like you can either have hard now or you can have hard later. I agree. And so that's really, really cool because succeeding in med school is hard. Well, failing in med school is hard too. It is right. And so you again, you get to decide, and you said this phrase, like it's it's about what you want. Right. And you have to decide, like, I'm gonna set boundaries because this time has to be given to this thing, because what I want requires these actions. Right. Because we get we get the results of our actions, not the results of our wants. Exactly. And I think that's a challenge that sometimes is like we say we want certain things, but we don't do the actions to get those things. Maybe we just lie into ourselves sometimes. I don't know. Maybe I'm just talking about me now.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

All right. No, I think you hit the nail of the head on a lot of things. I can count, well, really, I can't, because there's so many times like I've I've I've told myself, like, okay, I want to do this, I want to do this. But like you said, because I didn't put the action for behind that, it never got done. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

And that's it. So action creates outcome.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Like we can want all day long, right? Yep. Yeah. My parents had a particular phrase for it that I can't repeat on this show. Oh, well. But you know, that's all right. Hey. Family friendly. Oh, yeah. And so uh let's move into this next thing, right? Um, one of the things that I see with students when they jump into medical school is that uh the things that mattered to them before medical school, they lose sight of during medical school.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Can you speak to that? Like, yeah, I immensely. Uh so again, as I've uh talked about earlier, I was a student athlete, right? Um my life consisted of 4 a.m. wake up calls, going outside, um, running till I'm blue in the face, then go into the weight room, squatting, lifting, benching, any anything you could think of. So throw a weight, just throw a weight around, right? Till about seven in the morning and then shower for 10 minutes, grab a quick bunch of lunch to eat, and then show up for organic chemistry by 750. You know, um, all as to say, like I had lived a very active lifestyle when I was an undergrad. So coming into medical school and thinking that I wasn't gonna live that active lifestyle, no bueno, it didn't work. Um so of course I had to figure out a way to try to balance that as well as trying to balance the rigors of medical school. Um had a lot of trial and error. Um had a lot of times where I'm like, okay, I think I'm gonna do this. And if I do this, then I can go study for about you know seven, eight hours. No, it doesn't necessarily work that way. I feel like it took a lot of, like I said, like trial and error. Okay, if I study right now, what I can do is I can work out in the in the middle of the day, and then I can go uh study some more. Uh that didn't work. So, like I was saying, um, yeah, I had to figure out a pattern that worked for me, right? First I tried doing in the morning. That was cool. That was cool. Uh sometimes it used to bite me in the butt, especially during that first year, uh, because of a lot of times we would have our exams in the morning, right? Um, so sometimes I would wake up and I'm thinking, okay, I'm getting ready for uh, you know, workout. No, we got an exam. Okay, all right, got it shipped over, you know, got to get that done. Uh realign, realign. Realign, realign, realign, right? And then um then we shifted over to second semester where a lot of stuff was in the afternoon. That actually helped me out a lot. I'm not gonna lie. I actually preferred that because again, back football background, I'm used to doing everything in the morning, everything hard, at least in my mind, right? Um I do that in the morning, then that way for the rest of the day, I've I've already done the hardest thing I could think of. Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Um, so that that's what worked for me. I don't necessarily know where it works for everybody else, but for me, I knew fitness was an integral part that I needed.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Yeah, it mattered to you before. It did. And it was a core to your identity. Uh, like weight room was important, exercise was important. Yep. Uh but also, man, you said this and I love it. So please hear this. Okay, if you're still with us on the show, thanks. Uh I will quote Jacori Jackson in the uh trial and error, trying to find the pattern that worked for you. And it took some hit and miss. Oh, it did. But you kept going. Right. Also because you figured out, like, okay, I can't not have this. Right. I see students, the first thing that I see students throw away is exercise. That's the first thing I see them throw away because they don't have time for it. Uh, there's a book as published in 2013 called The New Science of Learning. Uh, Terry Boyle and Todd Zakwersek or something. I yeah, I know I blew that up. All right, Todd. Be my friend and tell me how to say it. But they said this statement, and they're quoting some other research, but exercise, and they specifically said aerobic exercise is the single most important thing you can do for cognitive learning, for performance of the brain. Like, wow. And here we are in med school where you need peak performance every day. Every day. And students throw away exercise first thing. Well, like, why do you what do you think it is that makes students go through that?

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Desperation. I'm just gonna be honest with you, desperation. Uh, they feel as though, okay, yeah, this is something that I know is important for me right now, but uh these test scores say otherwise. For sure. Um so I feel like people will get rid of the things that they feel are not as pressing in the moment. Uh and of course, that usually that usually ends up being fitness, um, hanging out with friends, you know, um let's see, eating right. That I feel like that's a big one. That's a big one. Uh let's see, sleep. Sleep. Sleep. That's that's another thing that people usually get rid of. Uh, and I feel like there's another one, but I can't think of it right now. But I feel like those four that I just hit the nail on, those are the first things that people usually like, ah, I don't need that. Yeah, I don't need that. I don't have time for that. Right, right, right. But it's funny you say that every time we talk about time, I'm always remembering about uh a quote or just a saying that I always told when I was a kid, you make time for what's important in your life. Yeah, that's right. Right. Um, so we need to sleep, you need to eat, you need to go to the gym, you know, and you need to communicate with people, right? Because why? We're social creatures, right? At the end of the day, you can't you you can't say all this or mumble jumble you want. Oh no, I gotta do this, I gotta do that. You you you still need to live. You do. Right.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

So I tell students uh you're a human too. Right. You're not just a med student, right? Like you're a human. Yes. And uh make make your well-being non-negotiable. Yes. And uh because test scores aren't gonna matter if third year you get to your clinical rotations and uh you can't deal with people anymore. Oh, yeah, because you're just exhausted. Yeah. And so I I mean, I I get that. And you you nailed it, I think, desperation, right? Because when the body gets into panic, you know more about this, man. You're way smarter than me. But um and that sympathetic nervous system activates and we get in stress response. Like, people don't make good decisions in stress response. Like that's that's not part of it. But training ourselves to wait a second, to like remember what's important. You said it, make time for what's important, and again, look to the outcomes that you want and consider what actions are required to get those outcomes and do that. Right. That's tough. That's tough. Uh so what's what's something that surprised you about medical school?

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Honestly, uh the cooperation. I honestly thought that it was gonna be a dogfight. You know, I feel like people were not gonna want to be as forthcoming with trying to share information. Um, and the reason why I say that is because uh, again, my athletic background. Um, of course, there were some guys like I jived with when I was back in school, but then there were some guys who just were not, you know, I can't really say what I want to say, but you know, yeah, we we didn't really jive. They were not it. No, no, not really. Um, so I kind of felt like it was gonna be the same thing going forward because even my undergrad, I remember there were times where I would want to, like, you know, hey, you know, I would I would ask, hey guy, you know, uh, can you help me out with this? I I don't really get this concept, you know, and they would help me, but they really weren't as forthcoming as I would have liked. I've even heard stories of like people giving people the wrong information just because they wanted to get an edge on them or they wanted to do better on the test. Want you to look bad. Yeah, uh, yeah. So I kind of felt like, you know, the farther up you move up into like society or your career and stuff, like it's just only gonna get hired, right? It really wasn't the case. It honestly wasn't. Like I can I can't tell you how many times I've stayed up late with like some of my friends that I made up here, just us quizzing each other, motivating each other, you know, getting on each other's butt whenever we uh were doing bad and stop doing like pity parties for ourselves. Like I that's part, that's that's half a reason why I was able to make it as far as I did.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

Man, you need some people to get down in the hole with you. You do, right? It's like don't just throw me a rope, get down in the hole with me. Yes, and I love that. Uh, because you can't just isolate yourself and uh I think it's really neat though, because we do have this idea that medical school is super competitive, and it is, it is, but that doesn't mean that it can't also be cooperative, yes. So there is some collaborative. Do you think that depends on whether or not you seek that?

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Yeah, I think so. If you're a more social person by nature, I feel like you will naturally gravitate towards that. If you're a more isolated person, I feel like being in medical school is only going to heighten that further. Um yeah, it's I I feel like being like you were saying about this just the stressful environment, um, the desperation to want to succeed, not just succeed, just to excel, because let's just be honest, every single person visit that medical school, these are all people who are used to excelling, right? Yeah, for sure. Um, and when you feel like you're not, I feel like that kind of it's an ego, it hits it, it hits your ego at a little bit and it makes you want to be like, okay, well, what's the problem? Am I am I just not not meant to belong here? Am I not, am I, am I not sufficient anymore? Right. So I feel like that'll just make people want to just dig in deeper, you know, self-isolate more, you know, study more, sleep less, you know, kind of like that vicious cycle that we were hitting on a little bit earlier.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

Yeah. No, that's good's good stuff because people like we tend to define ourselves by our low moments, right? Not by our wins, but by our losses. And so in medical school, you said this. Uh to like, and these students, you're excellers, you're achievers, you're doers. Yeah, you faced hard things, whether it was MCAT or organic chemistry or something, like you've faced hard things before, but you made it through those things, and now you're in medical school too. And so it's like when you get to a challenge, right? Like that tendency to stress responses double down instead of reflect and adjust. Right. Um, have you seen the does that make sense what I'm talking about? Yeah, it makes it makes sense. Work harder. Yeah. Do more. I mean, that sounds like me. That honestly sounds like me. Right. So so how have you been able to talk yourself into let's adjust, let's do different, not just more, or anything like that?

SPEAKER_00 19:35

Uh yeah. Yeah. Uh, I can't say that it's just been entirely me telling myself I've had to have, I've had to rely on people around me telling me that. Like, hey, JaCori, you know, you've been banging your head against this problem for the last, oh, I don't know, three to four hours, and you're kind of being mean right now. Maybe you need to walk away. You know? And I'm like, okay, awesome. Okay, yeah, maybe you're right, you know? Yeah, maybe I need to do that.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

Yeah, because uh what's the benefit of beating your head more? None. Well, you're trying to give yourself a concussion. Right. No, it doesn't right, it's just you don't need another one. No, you don't. No, and that's one of the things though, right? Because how much of it is I can figure this out. I will keep working until I figure this out instead of I need to walk away for a little bit. Yes. You know, there's some great things that happen when people have the discipline to walk away, which is that's a discipline, though, right? It is.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Like that's that requires some strength. It does. It does. I can totally vouch for that right now. Uh, but again, I think this goes back to the whole concept of we think that if I don't figure this out now, somehow I'm I'm inferior now. Like I haven't, I haven't um earned my spot here, right? Or I or I feel like I constantly have to like just kind of like prove to myself that I belong here, right? Especially when I have friends who don't struggle with this, and they're like, they come in and they solve the problem that I've been working on for the last two or three hours, like, oh, that's just boom, boom, boom. And I'm like, what? How did you, how did you how how? Why? What where did you get that information from? You know? So it's just, yeah, you just gotta tell yourself that you're running your own race, right? Um you deserve to be here, otherwise you wouldn't be here, right? And you just gotta keep going.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

Yeah. That's it. I love it. So you you said three things. Tell yourself you're running your own race. Yes. So other people's strengths don't matter. Right. What are your strengths? Exactly. Right? Because uh you have strengths they don't have, but you gotta run your own race. And then you gotta remind yourself you deserve to be here, that's why you're here. Mm-hmm. Right? Because it's not like somebody just gave it to you. Oh no. Right? Like you had to work to get here. Yeah. So remember that and then keep going. Mm-hmm. Boy, those are some uh important things to remember. Uh mindset, adjustment, stop with that comparison because comparison just steals your joy. It does. It's we always too like you ever notice that we compare ourselves that we we compare ourselves to others that we deem further along than us. We don't compare ourselves to people we think we're further along than. You ever think about that?

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Yeah. Think about that all the time. And I feel like it all boils down to just the day and age. I well, I don't know. Maybe you can speak to this a little bit more. But ever since I've been coming up, I feel like uh I feel like social media is a thief of joy, you know, because a lot, what do people usually do when they're either feeling good about themselves, uh, they'll post, right? I'm like, oh, I just did this, this, and this. Ha ha. You ain't do that. And then all of a sudden they'll see somebody else post something else. And it's like, oh, well, I didn't do all that. And now they feel sad, right? Um, I feel like that just bleeds into reality, honestly. Um, and it's it's kind of sad because uh I'll see these kids, like I said, I used to volunteer, but whenever I was volunteer, I used to see these kids with their phones and they'd be on social media that I'm like, uh, for I because I'm not gonna say their names, but little Johnny, you eight years old. What you doing on Instagram? You can't you can't even do your timetables. Like, why are you why are you here? You know, and you know, it's just it's just it's getting really bad, man. Like, yeah I can speak for myself that I have had to tell myself, hey, I'm where I'm at right now. I have to be okay with that. Just because some of my friends are doing a little bit better at one subject doesn't mean that they're necessarily just better than me, right? Right, right. Um, they're just they're just happening to be doing a little bit better, and that's okay. That's okay. We all have strengths and weaknesses, and we have to play to them. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 23:51

And they're on their path, not yours. Exactly. Right. And I think you mentioned social media. So let's jump on this for just a second, though, because I don't want to run down this rabbit hole too much. But here's the thing I think that really gets me. I love social media. Okay. You know, this podcast is gonna be all over social media.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

Social media is great.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

But social media, the algorithm is trying to get me to buy something.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:13

They are not trying to get me to be better. No. And I have to remember that when people are trying to get me to buy something, they don't always have my best interests at heart. Oh no. Why why do you think that we let that still control us, though, that we fall victim to the algorithm? What do you think? Because that's the it. Reddit says, here's what you got to do to be successful in med school. Instagram says, hey, take this new AI that I've created so that you can be successful in med school. And then people buy it. Like, what's what's up with this?

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Uh it's the gratification. That's that's what it boils down to. People always want the simple solution or the fastest solution, I should say. Um, so we kind of fall prey to that simple fix that, okay, if I just listen to this, this, and this, then I should succeed. And more often than not, that's not the case because anything that's that's truly worth doing is going to take some time to do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

So if it's good, there might not be an easy button. No. Right? So I tell people all the time, I say good things are on the other side of hard things. Oh, yeah. And so it's like uh remembering that, because you're right. Uh, there's a phrase called desirable difficulties. Okay. And um, I think as Bjork or Brown, one of them uh came up with this, and it's about when learning. And they say the idea is that learning that is difficult is more durable. Yes. And so we have to choose the hard path to learning, which is why you do board style practice questions as a medical student instead of first order questions as a medical student. Yes. They're hard, yes, but the learning lasts. Yes, it does. So the easy button of social media can sometimes be a trick.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

It can.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

But it feels good in the moment, right? It does. Yeah, you feel like you're making progress in the moment. Yeah, I hear that. I hear that. What would you say is uh something that you wish you would have known sooner?

SPEAKER_00 26:06

It's okay to ask for help. Yeah. It's okay to ask for help. Uh I think that I can only speak from my background, but I kind of hated asking for help ever since I was a kid. I have. Um, I've always been able to just figure things out on my own. Uh so when I feel like I need to ask for help, I feel like I don't know. Uh maybe am I just stupid, you know. Sometimes I felt I felt that way. Um, but at the end of the day, asking for help is something that makes you human because you're not gonna know everything, right? You're not gonna excel at everything, you're not gonna be the best possible version of yourself all the time. You're not, you're gonna find low points and you need to ask for help.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

Yeah. Boy, that's a you think that's just like is that like a guy thing? Like, is that like is it just a human thing? I think it's I think it's a human thing. And uh part of it is like obviously you're very intelligent, you're very athletic, you've been good at things your whole life, probably. And so that whole asking for help thing, there's a do you think there's a time in our lives where we feel like it's weakness to ask for help?

SPEAKER_00 27:18

I feel like most people think that if you're having to ask for help and you see all your other peers excelling, then yes, they think that's that's a form of weakness. I can I mean I can attest to myself. I feel like that's I've been in those moments. Where that was a form of weakness. Yes. I I viewed that as a form of weakness of like, oh, I have to go ask my peers. Like, okay, I guys, I need some help. And I I don't get it.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

So, how did you get to a mindset shift where you then viewed asking for help as a good thing?

SPEAKER_00 27:45

Uh when I kept getting beat upside the head by life and life was just like you need to ask for help.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

Yeah, ask for help. That's one of the things I get, man, and I love this, Jacori, is that asking for help looks weak, but is strong. It is. It's weakness to be unable to ask for help. It is. That's weakness, right? But a society doesn't celebrate. Oh, he look at him asking for help. That's so good. He's such a strong man. But uh society, uh like we celebrate the one who doesn't need help. I'm like, who is that person that doesn't need help? I don't think they exist. I don't think they exist either. And so oh, we're celebrating a fantasy, right? Is there anything you would tell a um an incoming? So this one, I love your story, I love the things that you're saying. Is there anything because saying that you wish you would have known it's okay to ask for help? Like med schools are built with structures in place for support, right? But there is sometimes a little bit of stigma still, right? About using the support structures. Whether it's a learning specialist like me or it's tutoring services or whatever it is, there's there's still stigma attached, so it's like we got to get past that. But is there anything you would tell, like, is there anything a student could do before they get to medical school that would be beneficial?

SPEAKER_00 29:06

Uh well, I would this may not, it may be controversial, but I would say do nothing. Honestly, I'm I'm just gonna be honest with you. Do nothing that hard or difficult to you that's going to automatically have you coming in stressed out, right? Um, do the things that you love, right? Do uh spend time with your family, spend time with your friends, you know. Uh do the things that they're gonna have you coming in just relaxed, right? Love it. Because you're all the from the minute you get here, your adrenaline is just gonna go up and up and up and up and up, right? And why would you do yourself a disservice and come in already just on 10? That that doesn't no, no, don't don't do that. I think you need to just go ahead, enjoy the moment, you know, be happy that you're coming into medical school, right? Right, right. But I think you need to enjoy the moment and reflect and just enjoy the people around you, the the current you, where you're at right now, and take that all in because uh medical school is a bumpy ride, so you need to buckle up when you get here, right? That's right, that's right, yeah. So, yeah, I think you need to really just come in as stress-free as possible.

SPEAKER_02 30:26

Yes. So, what I'm hearing is like take care of yourself. Yes. Before you get here. Yes. You know, it's really funny because I've asked a lot of uh student doctors this question about like what would you say to do to be prepared? And I was like expecting like take an anatomy course, take a biochem course. And I have had zero people say that. Here's what everyone has said so far. Don't do any of that.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

I've had one person give me like an action thing, and they said this. They said, uh, create the habits that are going to build success. That was the only thing. But it's the same thing you're saying. It's like take care of yourself. Love the people that are around you. Love yourself well. Take care of yourself. Come in, and uh, I love the way you said this. Like, don't get that stress elevated because once you get here, adrenaline jumps, you're gonna be stressed day one, and then you're gonna be stressed for four years. And then you're going into residency. I agree. Right? So it's like try to be healthy. Is there uh is there anything that you would tell somebody, I guess how do I word this? You have to help me, is uh when it's hard and you feel like giving up. Okay, how do you not give up?

SPEAKER_00 31:35

You have to remember your why. You have to remember your why. Like you're you're gonna learn about, I mean, you're gonna do it anyway. Like when you write about your um your statement to the school, right? Like why is your personal statement? Like, why do you want to come here, right? I call it a seed, right? It's what started you on this path, why did you want to start on this path, right? And what do you ultimately want to do, right? Those three things, like you need to keep a reminder of that, and you need to always go back to that because you're gonna get hit in the mouth. It's it's just it's gonna happen, right? Yeah, you're you're gonna you're gonna get hit in the mouth one way or the other, and you need to find a reason to get back up. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

And your why. And that's your why. Remember that why, or you call it a seed. Or your seed, right? Yeah, that's that's that's brilliant. All right, so final thought for me. I got two things that I'm gonna ask you that I ask every guest as we close the show. Sure. All right. What is one takeaway that if nobody listened to anything else that Ja Cory Jackson said today, what's the one statement that you would give? It can be something you've already said, or it can be brand new, but what's the one takeaway you would say this is what you need to hear?

SPEAKER_00 32:48

Oh mass. That's that's a little bit difficult.

SPEAKER_02 32:50

Yeah, no, right, no pressure, right? Don't get it wrong.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

I know. Uh okay. You belong here. Don't ever tell, don't ever believe that you don't belong here. No matter what happens, you belong here.

SPEAKER_02 33:07

Yeah. I love that, man. That's so that's powerful.

SPEAKER_00 33:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

Because uh let's say you go through a first test doesn't go well. You're gonna start to doubt that maybe maybe this isn't for me.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

Right.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

No, but what you're saying is remind yourself you belong here. Yes. We can fix it. Yes. We can fix it. All right, good. That was a heavy question. Yeah. All right, here's a lighter question. Okay. What is the Jakori binge right now? Like, what's the thing, whether it's a TV show, a podcast, a book, a YouTube series, whatever. What's your binge?

SPEAKER_00 33:41

Well, if we ask my girlfriend, she's gonna say, uh, she's gonna say cologne. I'm a big cologne guy, right? Uh that's been my biggest thing right now. Uh, we actually uh went to this uh, we was in Nashville, we went to the uh the mall there, and there was this guy, he had all these like really cool, exotic fragrances over there. Oh man, they were they were amazing, Mr. Mike. Oh my god. They they were I felt like a fat kid in the candy store. It was it was amazing. I like colognes. Colognes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

Yeah. So is there like a this is the cologne, this is the one if you're gonna be like somebody sponsor me. I'm looking for sponsors.

SPEAKER_00 34:14

That's that's like has me to peel between my children, Mr. Mike. Come on now. I I I I really I I love I love colognes. I I love them all. I'm a seasonal wearer. So, like for instance, like there's some colognes that I only wear during the winter time. There's some that I only wear during the wintertime right now. Um, I just I I just I just love them. I do. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

Yeah. See, you like to smell good. I do. I like it. People around you appreciate it too, right? I hope so. That's good. Well, JaCory, thanks so much for being on the show today. I I we're so grateful for you. I'm excited for the future patients that you're going to be serving. Yep. Because we need doctors like you. We need doctors that care about people. Uh we need doctors that are gonna take care of themselves. And so I appreciate that. And thanks for being on the show. You can catch up with Jacori. Uh, so like, follow, check him out on Instagram or whatever, wherever you find this podcast, you reach out to him and learn more about his story, and he can remind you that you belong. So uh thanks so much for tuning in. Have a great day. See ya.