u/Glittering_Maize7367

Non-US IMG here (visa requiring)

2016 grad (from African country)

Live and work in Canada now (as clinical assistant in clinic).

Stats:

• Step 1: pass, no attempt (2024)

• Step 2: 244

• Step 3: planning to take in 3/4 months

• OET done (Sept 2025)

• ECFMG certification pending

• Applying pathways 1

• No USCE so far

• Has only one research (published)

• Planning to do observership here in Canada.

• Attempted to apply ERAS 2026 but withdrawn as i couldn't be ECFMG certified in a reasonable time.

Now for 2027 im aiming to apply (ranked in my preferences)

1. IM

2. Pathology (can get LOR here from PD here)

3. FM

Given that im an old grad w pending ECFMG certification (which im working on it):

1. Am i doing good so far?

2. What should i work on ahead to increase my chances of matching into these program.

3. Do i have to make some strategic changes now?

I really appreciate your genuine inputs and suggestions 😊

Hear me out… this was probably the craziest experience of my life.

Tried 🍃 for the first time alone (already a bad idea). I had two joints... one around 26% and another close to 39%. Finished the first one in like 5 minutes, waited about 30 mins… nothing really hit. So I thought “okay maybe I need more” and lit the second one. I was puffing that one pretty heavily. Then it all hit at once. I suddenly got super hungry, like I had never eaten before. Then my heart started beating REALLY fast, and I began to panic.

It was around 11 PM and I was at a quiet park near a lake. I picked that spot thinking it would be peaceful with no people around… but it was the worst decision ever. I remember there were two couples sitting on a bench in the distance. I left immediately and started walking home… but nothing felt real.

Lowk I actually convinced myself I had gone into the lake and drowned, and that me walking home was some kind of afterlife simulation. At one point my brain was like: “those couples probably saw you drown and pulled you out.” Every time I felt pressure in my chest, I thought people were doing CPR on me 💀

Cars passing by didn’t feel real. People didn’t feel real. I even had moments where I thought they couldn’t see me, only I could see them.👀 Everything felt fake, like I was stuck in some loop after dying... life continuing but in a distorted, unreal way.😭

I checked my phone location multiple times but couldn’t trust anything I was seeing. Full paranoia, anxiety, and delusions all at once. At some point I found a YT video saying “it will pass,” and I held onto that hard. Eventuallycalmed down after watching this vid (not really believing tho) but hearing those experiences and reading the comments somehow helped me.. knowing that it wasn't happening only to me (tho i was still suspicious and not believing anything)

Next morning I still felt a bit off 😭 (and had to go to work like that… which was also an experience I won’t forget).

Now that I’m fully sober, I can say that was one of the scariest things I’ve ever gone through.