loser
You lose / your pen with / the red and blue and black ink
Tag: imposter syndrome
Contributing Writer
UC San Diego School of Medicine
Andrew is a fourth year medical student at University of California, San Diego SOM in La Jolla, CA, class of 2020. In 2013, he graduated from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor of Arts in history. He enjoys collecting vintage wristwatches and writing flash fiction. He is currently applying into emergency medicine.
Rise
So, one way or another / I keep craning my neck / Looking up.
My Mask
We all earn our way here / Paid in hours of studying / and minutes of fun lost.
Impostor or Two Sides of the Same Coin?
“Eager and enthusiastic” / As I drag myself from bed. / “Positive energy” / Do you have an injury to your head?
Conjunction
I am waiting for my coffee when / a middle-aged Turkish man / asks if I am a medical student
They Say, I Say
They say you’re at the top of the class / I say I’m barely able to pass
Forced Perspective
I know better. / I know nothing, and I am useless. / So don’t throw words at me insinuating that / I am knowledgeable.
Everything is a Zebra
As a medical student, I have big shoes to fill. I feel that void in my foot-space at all times. These shoes are expensive, and they are monstrously huge. We’re talking circus clown, Shaquille O’Neal, Andre the Giant shoes.
Damage Report: First Semester Postmortem
I don’t want to admit that medical school is tough for me. I want to be a natural at this. I want to devour my schoolwork and never satisfy my thirst for more.
Fitting My White Coat
I breathed in and out, in and out, in and out, trying to slow my heart rate. Countless hours of preparation had led to this day: the day when I would get the honor of donning the white coat that characterized the profession I was about to enter.
On Happiness in Medical School
I was once asked if medical school is an unhappy place. It is a good question, the kind that it takes someone outside of medicine to ask.
Smile
The entirety of the third year of medical school is an act. If you want to be a good medical student, you are what your team wants you to be. Amenable, pliant, easygoing — even when inside you are a bitter angry little thing who’s tired of being pushed around.
2016 Writers-in-Training Program Director
Emory School of Medicine
Hi, I'm a third year medical student at Emory University. I graduated in May 2014 from Duke University with majors in Neuroscience and English. I like fiction, penguins, discussions about race relations and feminist theory, makeup tutorials, and bubble tea. I may not be able to give you lots of medical advice, but if you need a couple cat videos to brighten up your day, you've come to the right person.