science of medicine will teach you about life, but the art of medicine will teach you what life is for every individual.” I owe my sister for that, because that's what I think third-year rotations will teach me. Right now, I'm learning what life is… all the pathologies, but you can't really know until you put a face or someone's story to the condition. There’s all these different things that I want to understand more, so I can help those patients, or be a bridge. That's what I'm really excited about for our third year, to see the face of what I'm trying to do. Another thing about third year I'm super excited for is finally just being tested in a way that is different than exams. I am a person who wants to talk with people; I want to hear what people have to say; I want people to trust me. That's the way I want to be tested. I want to be tested emotionally. I want to be tested physically. How am I going to deal with that situation?
A Blank Slate and an Open Mind
I think, for me, I want the challenge of really having that long term impact on someone's life. I just think pediatrics really gives me a chance for that. Pediatrics to me, as a right now, is like that part of the community that can really uphold another part of someone's community if it's faltering. If their home life isn’t the best, or their school system is missing something, whatever it may be, I want to be that physician who can really help with all those things. I also love cardiology, so if I can mix those two things, I think it'd be really cool. The one thing about pediatrics, obviously, that I think might be hard for me would be dealing with a sick child, because I haven't really seen that many sick children before. I don't really know how my reaction would be. If it isn’t for me, then obviously I'm not going to force myself into it.
I hope I can look back at my third-year rotations, and say that I gave every different rotation the fair chance that it deserves. I always tell myself I want to be a pediatrician, and I don't want to end my pediatric rotation feeling that I'm indebted to it. If I love surgery, then I'll do surgery. If I love family medicine, then I'm going to do family med, but I need to give them a blank slate and an open mind as I go into every single one. If I pigeonhole myself early on, then I might miss the opportunity to really learn why maybe another field was more important to me. When I look back at my third year, I want to say I gave every rotation the same opportunity to teach me about who I am. There's no way I could fairly say that I like pediatrics right now. I don't want to build anything up to be more than it is, and I don't want to belittle anything because of what other people said that it would be. I think that would be a real shame if I took too much input from another student’s experience, because that's their experience. I need to start with that blank slate mindset. So I think at the end, if I can look back at that, it'll give me a really awesome perspective of what type of position I want to be in.
Shout Out to Mom
I'm very blessed to have that support system I have in my parents and my siblings. They have always been there for me, to vent or call or whatever it may be, and I know when I'm closer in Newark, it will really expand those relationships. My parents are just the most amazing people in the world. Especially my mom (shout out to Mom). She's the coolest person I've ever met in my life.
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