Rainy Night Thoughts

Hi, everyone!

It's a rainy Friday night, and I'm currently sitting in my room. It's peaceful here. I can hear the sound of the raindrops outside and the sound of my mom washing the dishes in the kitchen. I'm also listening to the "Electronic Study: Ambient" playlist on Songza. I don't always like to have music on when I'm working, but once in awhile it's nice to have something in the background.

There's a Hunter biology professor who loves to play opera music in his office. When you walk into his office, it's as if you're entering a separate realm. It's always dimly lit, and the music is almost always playing in the background. All of his stuff is also super organized. If I'm ever important enough to have an office, I'll definitely be sure to create such a peaceful work environment for myself. I also love the fact that biology is not his only love. He also has this great passion for opera music, which you wouldn't expect in a scientist. I love seeing that kind of stuff. It makes me hopeful that I'll still be able to hold on to my hobbies/passions even when I have some kind of intense career.

On Wednesday, a Kaplan instructor visited Hunter to talk about the pathway to medical school and the medical career. It was a super informative hour. There are so many steps that need to be taken to become a doctor, and it's great to know about them early on to avoid stress later. One of the biggest things we talked about was taking the MCAT, which is every pre-med student's worst nightmare. I think a lot of people tie their self-worth into that exam, which is not what it should be about. As the instructor explained, every exam in a pre-med student's life is a test of endurance and focus. He called the exam-taking process a sport, which is actually a great way of looking at. It's not necessarily about being intelligent. It's about being able to do well on tests, and the only way you learn how to do that is by practicing and learning certain test-taking skills. Hearing that actually made me feel a lot better about taking the MCAT.

There was also something else he said that really got to me. At the end of his talk, he asked us the question: "How do you think it would feel to know the answer to every medical question that you've ever wondered about?" As future doctors, we will carry a vast amount of knowledge, which is simultaneously a gift and a burden. It is a gift because we will have the ability to help so many people with that knowledge. But it is also a great burden because of the expectations and tremendous responsibility that are involved. I don't think that it's a stretch to say that good doctors are almost superhuman.

Finals week is rapidly approaching….We will be victorious! <3

S.

Quote of the Week

“We look for medicine to be an orderly field of knowledge and procedure. But it is not. It is an imperfect science, an enterprise of constantly changing knowledge, uncertain information, fallible individuals, and at the same time lives on the line. There is science in what we do, yes, but also habit, intuition, and sometimes plain old guessing. The gap between what we know and what we aim for persists. And this gap complicates everything we do.”

~ Atul Gawande, Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science