“Stop. Stop. Go.”
That’s how “Fall At Your Feet,” my favorite song by Saint Raymond, begins. As I sit listening to it while I’m reflecting on my blogging experience here at the Saltman Quarterly, I realize that the lyrics express what I want to say.
Stop.
When I initially pitched my blog to the Saltman Quarterly, I approached from a very journalistic point-of-view. For three years in high school, I was trained to find the story and report it. I approached my blog with the same mentality. My goal was to find professors, students and other on-campus resources that could provide guidance to what I thought was a group of Biology students that were not catered to enough: us non-pre-meds. I was someone who was not pre-med but knew exactly where she wanted to end up – I wanted to help others arrive at their destinations as well.
And then I started drafting my first entry.
Stop.
Initially I couldn’t find the stories I was looking for, and the first thing I did was wonder why. Why weren’t we proud of not being pre-med? Understandably being a doctor comes with so much prestige. We hear so much from students doing remarkable things in the medical field, beaming every time they get to discuss their work. Why don’t the rest of us do the same? Without any visible inspiration to draw from on campus, I lost direction for my blog. I ended up using it as an opportunity to learn from my mistakes. Yes, I did find professors with great advice like Dr. Heather Henter and Dr. Christina Johnson, and students doing remarkable things without being pre-med, but most weeks finding something to share with you was difficult. So I made mistakes and reflected on my own interests, seeking out the resources that would help you.
But still, I wish I could have brought you more advice from professors and more student success stories. I wish I could have done more for you, my readers, than help you by helping myself. But I hope I at least did that – I hope I helped. I hope that my ramblings, my trips and my falls helped you avoid the crack in the sidewalk. My dad always tells me to take advantage of the fact that I’m at a large research university – to listen to lectures, seek out mentors and try new things. Maybe you’ll be inspired to do the same.
At least I hope you are inspired to seek out your own passions – whether they be in medicine or not – and you move forward doing whatever makes you happy, even if the path is unclear at first.
As Saint Raymond sings, “you can have it all.”
Go.