Reza Hosseini Ghomi (3 Posts)Contributing Writer Emeritus
University of Massachusetts Medical School
I entered medical school after some wandering, not having a clue I would be here only five years after finishing college. I spent several years trying to find a place that felt right and eventually learned to quiet the torrent in my head enough to hear the messages from my heart and gut. I spent a short while in systems engineering for the Navy, but my experience as a patient with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma soon led me elsewhere. I ended up finding myself in basic science and imaging research, eventually leading to a graduate degree in biomedical engineering. I still didn't quite feel at home and realized what I really sought was the doctor-patient relationship I've read about, experienced, and admired. I felt I finally knew how I could feed my appetite for solving problems from the core and improving systems while also maintaining close contact with those I serve. This is a quote that has helped many times in my life.
"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and endless plans: That the moment one definitely commits oneself then providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never have otherwise occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in ones's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I’m sitting by the window in a hospital room with my eight-year-old sidekick who is being treated for rhabdomysarcoma, here for chemotherapy. Sidekicks is a student-led initiative at UMass Medical School that matches medical students with pediatric oncology patients in order to build long-term, non-medical relationships. He is watching his favorite cartoons and so he is unresponsive to my attempts at engagement. My own five-year anniversary of being in remission from Hodgkin’s lymphoma just passed …
Conventional wisdom dictates that the meaning of life can be found in friends, family, and love. That’s right, guys: step away from the textbooks — apparently they don’t bring happiness. I know, I was shocked too, but hey, there’s always money. Now, on the off chance you’re wondering why I’m writing a column about friendship and the meaning of life, I should probably mention that I just watched the movie from which I stole my …
No one, and I mean no one, appreciates a vacation like a medical student. I’m only two days into my first week off since the start of school and I keep catching myself sitting for long periods of time staring at nothing in particular, and I’m not upset about it one bit. In the past, a week off usually involved restless opening and closing of my laptop and insanity producing boredom. But not this time. …
How Med Students Experience Test Day: Module Director In Secret Control Room: “On my signal, unleash hell.” Students Inside the Computer Lab: “We who are about to die, salute you!” How Professors Experience Test Day: Alarm Clock: *beep beep beep beep beep* Professor: *hits snooze* *rolls over* And Now for the Column: If you think about it, for all our busyness we med students actually have some semblance of a life on non-test weeks. …
In Pirates of the Caribbean, the rum was always gone; in med school, the alarm is always on — and if there was ever any rum it was consumed months ago. Every morning, poor (literally and figuratively) and tired (just literally) med students around the country are unceremoniously startled out of their blissful, all-too-rare slumber by the chirping, buzzing, coaxing and/or screeching of an alarm clock that just never seems to shut up. Whether it’s the …
I want to be a surgeon. I am, however, only a first year; and statistically speaking this means that what I think I want to be right now is likely to change about 16 times over the next four years until I end up a 35-year-old psychiatrist/OB trying to piece together how I ended up doing the two things I had no interest in when I first got to med school. Of course the Psych/OB …
The alarm rings. Its shrill screech jars him out of sleep and his eyes slowly open. He lays there a moment, listening to its piercing repetition. He considers falling back to sleep. After a moment he rolls out of bed and his feet hit the cold wood floor. He touches the top of the clock and the room falls back into silence. As the covers fall away, the chill from the morning air touches his …
What a surreal feeling it was, to slip my hands — the same hands that pulled me across the floor as a baby, plucked worms from the ground as a mud-covered kid, collected E. coli-infested water samples throughout high school, flipped through MCAT study guides for an infinitesimal amount of time during college — into the sleeves of my white coat. They were the same hands, yes, but as they slid through those starchy sleeves, …
Those who consider the nomadic way of life abandoned centuries in the past have not had the experience so frequently endured by the current generation of college students, recent graduates, and graduate school prospectives. The months prior to the first day of the M1 curriculum are a unique period of stress and anticipation, but adding fury to this already volatile mixture of emotions is the packing, unpacking, and re-organizing of multiple college apartments and the …
Katie Rodenbeck (1 Posts)Contributing Writer Emeritus
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Katie Rodenbeck is a recent graduate from the School of Integrative Biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. During her undergraduate career, she was an active member of the American Medical Student Association, a volunteer at Carle Foundation Hospital, and coordinator of the peer advising program in the School of Integrative Biology. Taking advantage of travel opportunities as an undergrad, Katie has visited countries including South Africa, France, and Turkey. As a participant in Global Medical Brigades, she has visited Honduras on two occasions, working with fellow students and volunteer physicians to set up free medical and dental clinics, serving those who otherwise have little to no access to health care. Her plans now include attending medical school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where she is excited to become involved with health care justice and advocacy for the underserved population.
