An Open Letter to Incoming MS1s:
CONGRATULATIONS ON BEGINNING THE MEDICAL MARATHON! You’ve got 26.2 miles left to run. Good news: It’s not a race — take it at your own pace.
Whether you’re graduating from college, coming from industry, or finishing up a post-baccalaureate degree, starting medical school can feel like you’re a freshwater minnow swimming out into the vast saltwater ocean. After starting, staying on top of all of the moving pieces can feel like running around a field, whacking gophers as they pop up out of holes. After having spent 3 years working as a management consultant and corporate strategist, I still felt out-classed and underwater when I started school in the fall of 2019. I promised myself that I wouldn’t let medical school take over my life the way that college did — pursuing every “A” with a fervor that occasionally included skipping meals, for instance.
Capitalist, anti-humanist values push the belief that we must “prove ourselves” to be worthy of others’ time and investment. When, however, does “proving oneself” end? At what point has one accomplished enough to be “proven?” Could it be when one attains the MD or PhD? No, because residency training awaits on the other end. Could it be when one reaches attending status? Not quite, because there are department chair positions and private practices to be run. Could it be near the end of one’s career? No, because patients’ trust must constantly be won, and the practice of medicine is ever-evolving.
Rest strong in the knowledge that by simply showing up and authentically engaging, you are already enough, have already been proven, and are empowered to make choices that lead to a fulfilling future. What does that fulfilling future look like for you? Annul your marriage to whatever you wrote in your AMCAS application. Seek out mentors who have experiences that interest you. Ask them to have a conversation — there’s no need to agree to work with them to receive their wisdom. A mentor once told me: Show me your mentors, and I’ll show you your future. Seek a diversity of perspectives from mentors in specialties that interest you as well as those that don’t interest you. Ask questions about what their lives are like outside of medicine. What choices did they make for their personal life? Where do they seem to fall on the scale of having lots of money but little time, versus lots of time but less money?
To maintain serenity on the lake of your internal mind, create boundaries for yourself, or else medical school will create them for you. If you find yourself studying until you pass out at night, breathe and notice how that makes you feel. Avoid the trap of exclusively discussing medicine and classes with your classmates. Ask yourself: How many days has it been since you took a day off from medical school? When was the last time you engaged in a hobby that brings you joy?
At Perelman, midterms and finals occur about every 2 weeks. There’s a week in the fall of MS2 called “Derm-cation” where you take a week-long dermatology course, which means that there are 2 finals on back-to-back Fridays. In such an environment, “failing” a test feels uncomfortably novel — negative, even. Mentioning the F-word is enough to make medical students’ heart rates spike. We are working to normalize “failing” at Perelman — after all, failing doesn’t mean that you weren’t intelligent enough to understand the material or that you weren’t interested enough in it. It may mean that you need new study strategies (Hint: the ones you relied upon in undergrad are frequently too time-consuming and detail-oriented), or perhaps that the way the concepts were presented to you didn’t click with how your brain works. Failing means you chose to prioritize something else in your life; it means you remain a whole person with diverse interests and priorities. There is pride in failure, for it is ultimately the person who is able to pick up, pivot, shift priorities, and also employ new strategies who will go farthest in life. That bears repeating: There is pride in “failure.” Ultimately, the goal of the first 18 months of medical school is to develop an understanding of basic terminology and establish a foundation of knowledge that you will relearn as you study for the various steps of the board exams. (If you don’t know what those are: Excellent. Keep it that way for as long as possible.)
Perelman is an imperfect place; it would be boring if it were perfect. Working to institute change at Perelman is an incredible way to build relationships with administrators on the 6th floor. Utilize upperclasspersons in your pursuits, as they have institutional memory to share. Reach out to request 1-on-1 conversations with Deans (including Dean Rose and Dean Jameson): that is their job! They enjoy getting to know students, and they have a birds-eye view of all the opportunities that exist at Penn. Finally, remain engaged with society at large! The medical school bubble is thick and insulated, muffling all sounds from the outside world. Get yourself registered to vote and request a mail in ballot at vot-er.org/penn. Then share with your loved ones and network!
Breathlessly,
Zonía
P.S. My #1 study tip is two-fold: Don’t feel married to your old study habits, and utilize Penn’s many free resources to do practice questions! Dr. Rashmi Kumar from the Weingarten learning center knows all.
Zonia Moore is an MS2 at the Perelman School of Medicine. Zonia can be reached by email at [email protected].
