Happy Thanksgiving!

Over the last years I’ve learned to really appreciate Thanksgiving. It has for me almost the same magic as Christmas as it brings everyone together. You can feel the happiness on people’s smiles and everything smells like cinnamon and pumpkin spice and everyone is happy to be home. There is no better reason to celebrate than being with those you love. So Happy Thanksgiving!

DM

School

I remember a couple years ago when I was complaining about a class, a paper or one of those school things that can be annoying at times, and someone told me something that I find out to be true as I am getting ready to graduate next semester. When I was a freshman I could not see the difference between the classes in high school and the classes here, except for the language, the fact that almost all of them had tests that were only multiple choice, there were more papers and the books were bigger. But the concept remained the same, I went to class, tried to keep up with some assignments in all of the classes, studied, studied for some the night before, got my grades and then a couple months later forgot it all.  As a future med student this has always worried me, because in med school you can’t just simply forget all you learned while trying to keep someone alive.  But time has gone by and I have grown and learned a lot, not necessarily the information heard in class, but learned the skills necessary to succeed with all my classes. Skills like balancing cooking, cleaning, working, studying and seeing friends although I’m not even close to being an expert yet. I also learned to look for information in the right places, mostly the databases in our library, but also other people and friends. I also learned that we are all good at something and we should find a career that we like and makes us happy. Also, I learned to trust others who know what they are doing and that some groups can work really well together. Going back to what I was told freshman year “College isn’t about learning the subjects on your field, it is about learning to teach yourself” summarizes most of my college experience, an explains why some professors are even allowed to teach.

Always your,

DM

8 miles!

So here it comes, my first running post. Thanks to Caitlin, we’ve gone running these past two weekends for 8 miles. My first thought: I survived, although it seems that I’m not allowed to say I am not a runner anymore. So far it’s very interesting to see the changes from one day to the next, in terms of both speed and distance. Improvements appear to happen in big leaps, instead of a more gradual progression. Right now I’m trying to figure out a balance between speed and the distance I can go without slowing down too much. It doesn’t sound so hard but lately every time I run I start going faster for no evident reason without noticing it, which makes it a little more challenging. Also, I am so far unable to determine the distance that I have gone, overestimating it by a lot. By now I think its safe to say I am enjoying it as I keep coming up with new challenges each week. I can’t wait for Disney and to see what my body will come up with this weekend for my first 10 miles!

DM

From hero to breakdown

It is the trend in college that the most things you do, the more qualified you become to do anything else. I will use pre-med students as an example, because I am extremely familiar with this model. One assumption has to be made though, when it all started many years ago, everything was much simpler. Medical school is known for its low acceptance rate and the struggles of many people to get in, going through perfect 4.0’s, volunteering, honor societies, leadership experiences, committees, research, publications, patient contact situations, physician shadowing, conferences, MCAT scores, jobs, interviews and a multitude of other things.

At first the criteria must have been straightforward, many people want to get in, they take those who have the highest grades. Then someone probably decided he could so some volunteering and still have pretty good grades, and a few others copied this idea; next thing we know? Having a job and great GPA is the new standard for med school admissions. Having a job and getting good grades may have been too easy for a small amount of students, so they threw in some research in their spare time. It didn’t take very long for admission committees to expect good grades, volunteering and research in every application. By now you should see where I’m going with all of this.

As a freshman I attended a conference designed to help you plan your way into med school, but I should say it was designed to terrify you and show you all the possible reasons you would not be accepted. The profile described above is just what fits the expectations nowadays, but does it really predict your success? More than once I have seen people who fulfilled this long list of requirements, graduate without a job, a life plan, an acceptance into any graduate program or and idea of what to do next. Does your ability to organize a concert, win a volleyball tournament, become queen in a university pageant and maintain a job all during the same semester predict your passion for medicine? Does doing research predict your empathy with other people and your willingness to help them? Does a great MCAT score tell you how you will react in an emergency situation?

Lets talk about all those people that are left out. Maybe they are not good at politics, not getting enough leadership positions, or they liked volunteering better than research and did not get enough data to publish a paper. There is no correlation that establishes that because of this, they will not be good doctors. If everyone who has made a breakthrough in the past 50 years had to go through these loopholes to do what they liked, what they wanted, most discoveries would not have happened. Having just one talent, and one interest doesn’t get anyone very far anymore. It’s like asking all pre-med students to be athletes, wizards and musicians, trying to make them do something that does not always come naturally and does not lead directly to their dreams. Maybe letting students focus on what they love will allow them to shine and conquer more challenges.

Instead of trying to do all these things, focusing on one that really matters could make a great difference. Doing so many things at the same time can only lower the standard of each of them; but sure, a few overachievers, our heroes here, can do it, and do it well. For the rest of us, it can lead to a breakdown, never been satisfied with what we do. The more we do, the higher the expectations in general to get admitted into a program. Is it all worth it? It starts with college, but the same signs are visible in high school, or even middle school. Can a single mistake while you were 10 years old prevent you from being a doctor? It won’t be long before this becomes a common occurrence.

ever yours,

DM

Compassion, love, happiness, mindfulness, forgiveness and respect

On October 24 His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama visited UM. The title above summarizes most of his speech but there is no way to summarize the experience. The first thing he told us was that peace and change was in our hands, as students it is our responsibility. Peace is possible through compassion, I think this is the word he emphasized the most during that hour, and possibly the solution to most conflicts all over the world. When talking about religion he highlighted the need to respect everyone’s point of view and concluded that there is one thing all religions have in common: faith. I really did not expect his advice to stick to our own religion. He mentioned the importance of tradition and was able to convey a sense of security in our own beliefs that opened a new perspective for the religious debate.  During the entire hour he was constantly making jokes, telling us stories and portraying a very down-to-earth character, things were as simple as eating a plate of cookies with people he visited. After I left it finally hit me, this is a man who won the Nobel Peace Prize and that is slowly changing the world by doing the simplest little things. It was very humbling to see him admit he had no idea when answering some of the questions at the end; and as it is true he must not know the science details of the most controversial topics nowadays, it all came down to forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness, respect and love to be on our way to the pursuit of happiness. 

DM

Journeys

Not so long ago I was watching Julie and Julia and it gave me an idea. In the movie she writes a blog about her journey as she cooked her way through Julia Child’s book. I then decided that I was going to write a blog about my own journey as I started training for the Disney’s Half Marathon. Needless to say I cannot stick to a single topic, so that’s when I realized we all have different stories happening at the same time. Over the years, while exploring different options and different countries it has been made clear that I never fit into a traditional path, I make things more interesting (and complicated!) and fun.

I initially called this post introduction because there are a few things you need to know before you can understand my opinions, experiences and postings on this website. I grew up in Venezuela and have been living in Miami since 2007. I also grew up with a very strong Spanish influence because of my grandmother, and I will be moving there next year. I live alone and although that’s very common here, most of my friends from home still live with their parents, and it also looks completely normal to me. There is a mix of traditions, culture and influences that make my life pretty unique.

Part of this living alone experience includes learning how to cook, which is a skill, even a form of art that I definitely haven’t mastered yet. In a few weeks I will make my first attempt at cooking Thanksgiving’s dinner, I’ll let you know how it goes ;) What I was trying to get to when started writing this, is that I will write about running, cooking, med school applications and any other thing that crosses my mind and that makes me have a strong opinion on it, symbolizing all of the separate journeys that a college student can go through in her senior year. Until then, I wish you the best and I hope you will find something interesting, controversial or just entertaining in my future blogs.

Yours truly,

DM