What have been impactful events that have led you to osteopathic medicine?
When I was thinking about medical school, I was looking at it from the angle of “what is going to give me the best education and how am I going to learn the best?” That was advice someone gave me when I was trying to figure out how to look at different schools. It comes down to knowing what your learning styles are. I really like DO because I am very into kinesthetic learning. I like to be doing things. I like to be moving and seeing how everything works together. Osteopathic medicine is really nice for this because it’s very hands on. So when we’re talking about this bone and that bone and the way different bones move and interact, I’m actually feeling and understanding how everything flows together with the body and I think it helps me learn medicine really well. That’s why I really like DO. Also I remember I went to some pre med summer camp and we toured a DO school and thought it was very cool. Anyone who is a kinesthetic learner, I think DO schools are great for that.
What do you wish you knew 5 years ago?
I think I kind of did this but I started really late. Don’t let being pre-med become your life. A lot of times we think that every single minute that we do has to be something we can talk about in a med school application and that is the culture. Sometimes we forget there is life outside of medicine. Sometimes learning how to put the books down is something I wish I had spent more time doing. I don’t think I got out and saw the world and learned how to put a book away earlier.
If you could start over, what would you change?
I would find a way to take my summers off, which is really hard as someone in medicine. But the summer before my senior year I was working in this clinic that was 9-5 and then I was off and I loved that. I also wish I spent more time doing part time stuff in the summer so I could find a meaningful experience and take time off. I spent that summer with friends and family and could take the train to New York for a day here and there, and not be worried about my phone or work. I learned and understood how to take time off! It’s so nice to just take some time off and I think that’s when you learn who you are. I wish I had spent more time off and just not doing anything.
What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
Figuring out what you want to do in life is really hard. It’s really hard in college when you are living with so many people who are also trying to figure it out. You end up becoming dependent on whoever is around you. So one challenge is the disconnect in wanting to do what your friends are doing and being true to yourself in what you want to do. I don’t really know how I overcame it honestly. I think it’s just something where you do it enough times and you slowly become more confident in saying “this is who I am and this is what I want to do”, even if that may be different from your friends. I think the FOMO can get really real in college and finding friends that are not going to judge you if you need to take a night off is really important and a really hard concept. It took me being in med school to realize that.
What is the best advice you could give someone pursuing the same track as you?
It’s something that my friends and I have been talking about a lot. For lack of better words, on some days it feels like you have sold your soul to someone else. When you sign up to do medicine, you’re signing yourself up for a lifetime of community service. Any doctor you talk to will talk about how much they sometimes have to put their life on hold to be there for a patient. I know my dad, as a physician, came to my after school activities but there were definitely times he could not be there- he had to take care of his patients. I talked to one of my professors about this who had to leave her newborn baby at home one time. She said “my baby is fine, but my patient’s baby is not, so I need to go take care of this baby because I have a skill that not many others have”. If you’re thinking about a career in medicine and whether or not you are ready to do this, think about whether or not you are ready to do community service for someone for the rest of your life.