Beginnings

Well, here it goes, the first post in a haphazard blog about life in medical school. I can't guarantee that it will be interesting or funny, the only thing I can promise is that it will be the truth, from my heart. I guess I should start by talking about beginnings. (It's really my only chance to do so, you can't talk about beginnings in the second post and be taken seriously.) Now's the time to talk about the start of med school, how I got here, and what I might do with my life. Actually, I might save the 'future' stuff for later, because I have no idea what to do with my life. That'll come later, they tell me.

So I've been living in my apartment for about two months and after the initial shock of being co-responsible for everything here (endless internet hassles, cockroaches, mice, no more meal plan) I have settled in and things are going surprisingly well. After spending four years in the semi-city that Nashville is, I'm glad that I finally have a chance to live in a large downtown urban area. Disclaimer: I love Nashville, but it's not what people think of as a metropolis and it doesn't have the history that Philly does. Furthermore, it's great to be in the northeast... despite all the earthquakes and hurricanes that greeted me during my first month here.

But enough of that, we're here to talk about med school ('med school' is synonymous with 'life', by the way). Every day I am in awe of the amazing things that occur at Penn. Whether it's the research, patient population, our curriculum, or various educational programs and extremely brilliant mentors available here, I can already tell that this is a place that will provide the tools for me to become whoever I want.

One example of the caliber of mentors at Penn: I just got home about 30 minutes ago from a talk by Dr. Richard Shannon, the Chair of Medicine at HUP (Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania) at an internal medicine interest group meeting (I was lured there by free Indian food). He told us about his past, all of the great successes and significant failures that got him to where he is now. (Originally in this post I had written out all of the things he told us, but a lot of it was personal, and I should probably not betray his trust here on the internet. Suffice it to say that he has experienced successes and failures of equal magnitude, yet his drive and determination have caused more success than failure.) The important point is that one must have experience and wisdom to be successful, but one only gains meaningful wisdom from failure. Dr. Shannon's drive and conviction were palpable throughout the talk, and listening to him made me realize how much a typical person could be limited by self-assigned limits of willpower. Hopefully I'll remember Dr. Shannon next time I don't feel like waking up for class, or putting in the extra time to learn something new...

Now, I don't necessarily aspire to be a Chair of Medicine at a top ranked teaching hospital, but his words will inspire me to achieve excellence in any path I end up taking. I paraphrase his message, 'the key to success is committing yourself wholeheartedly to every detail in order to improve your work in every way,' which reminds me over and over how important the details are. It's hard to find the drive to commit yourself to those minutiae, but I suspect it is easiest when you do something that you love. I will eventually find my true calling, but right now I vow to commit myself to a lifetime of learning and growing, as well as maintaining excellent physical and mental health, and most of all to approach every day with a positive outlook and energy.

Well, that's enough for one day, I think. I'll be back next week.

Mark

P.S. The writing will get better, I promise.