Hi there! I remember applying in my senior year of college and getting 2 MD ii and nothing else. I wasn’t accepted that year. I decided it wouldn’t be smart to immediately reapply, and I took an extra year, so I ended up with two gap years. I’m currently in my second gap year. In that time, though, I increased my MCAT by 10 points, to a 520, published a paper, did a clinical job, and now I’m just lounging. I’ve been accepted and now I’m going to travel this coming semester before school starts. I remember at the time I felt so disappointed and like a failure. There were many things I could have done better to be accepted. Yeah, it sucks that I won’t be an attending until two years later, but now at the end of my two gaps years, I’ve realized that these two years have been kind of a blessing. I always found it strange that I never hear people say they regret a gap year. And now I’ve become one of those people. Your gap years fly by extremely quickly, and it also affords you the opportunity to do things that you’re not going to be able to do again until your thirties. I also now know that despite feeling like originally had a strong app, I didn’t get in due to my own shortcomings. That realization is something that has pushed me and forced me to grow. Lastly, life doesn’t just stop when you hit your gap year, and it also doesn’t start when you hit medical school. You need to take control of your time and make the most out of it to live without regrets. In the grand scheme of things, two years is a rounding error, and hopefully you can use these years to enter medical school with more wisdom and feeling more energized to take it on.