The pre-medical path in many people's minds is associated with competition, stress, sleep deprivation, perpetual studying, and lack of a social life. Jokes about pre-med students spending Saturday nights in Butler while classmates go out, quotes like "I'm not anti-social, I'm pre-med," and the sympathetic stares I've received while tabling for pre-med organizations at club fairs further attest to these commonly held negative perceptions of the path to becoming a physician. While undoubtedly rigorous, the undergraduate experience of an individual pursuing medicine can and should be enjoyable, rewarding, and filled with noncompetitive collaboration with peers, as well as time allotted to relieving stress with friends. It may be time to change the focus of the pre-med track to enjoying one's experience, rather than completing a medical school checklist by senior year. Perhaps one of the first ways one can enjoy the medical experience is to gain clinical exposure. You may have been initially drawn to medicine by your love of science, by the seemingly never-boring lives of doctors on "Grey's Anatomy," or by the influence of family members who are physicians. But only by directly observing the practice of medicine, and by personally interacting with patients, will you become confident in your desire to enter the field of medicine. Talking to a sick patient on the oncology unit as chemotherapy drips from the IV bag into the veins, watching as emergency room trauma doctors prepare to treat a pedestrian hit by a car, or simply holding a crying child's hand as his or her wound is stitched up will leave you with impressions profoundly different from the effects of reading a biology textbook. In addition to testing your commitment to medicine, clinical volunteering should be an immensely rewarding activity that helps to remind you of the reason you're studying so hard. In the same vein, pre-meds should choose extracurriculars that they feel passionate about, rather than ones that will "look good" on their resumes. This is a great way to meet new people, relieve stress, pursue your non-academic interests, and take your mind off your schoolwork. Whereas belonging to a pre-medical club will provide you with an instant community of pre-med students who understand your worries, joining an organization unrelated to medicine will provide you with the refreshing opportunity to talk to students with interests widely divergent from your own, students who could care less about your upcoming Intro Bio exam. So in general, it is good to have a support system of friends who are pre-med as well as friends who are not. Research, similar to all your other activities, should not be viewed simply as an item to be checked off your pre-med ‘"to-do list"—you should pursue research if it genuinely interests you. That said, there is an enormous range of research opportunities from which you can choose—encompassing basic science research, clinical or translational research, and public health research. Do not be deterred from research if you were not too fond of your general and organic chemistry laboratory courses, as the ability to analyze data from your own independent research project is a wonderfully rewarding experience you cannot achieve from a lab course. The pre-med track can be a daunting one, so it is better to have fun while you're doing it. Gaining hands-on experience in a hospital or clinic, diving into extracurriculars you're passionate about, and conducting research in a field that sparks your interest is crucial. You have to make sure you can achieve a proper balance between work and fun—your courses will undeniably necessitate much of the former, but your mental health requires a decent amount of the latter. The author is a Columbia College senior majoring in biochemistry. She is the president of the Columbia University American Medical Students Association.