Getting a Fresh Perspective on Med School

Kendra Campbell -- Right now I’m sitting in a hotel room in Guadeloupe, a French island in the Caribbean. Except for writing this blog entry for the Differential, I haven’t had a single thought related to med school since I left for this island a few days ago. I’ve spent the past few days sitting on the beach, playing in the water, enjoying French wine and food, and trying to use the little French that I know to explain to the housekeeper that I need more towels. What I haven’t been doing is watching lectures on the malarial cycle, memorizing endless drug names, practicing my auscultation skills or freaking out about an upcoming exam.

Not only has my lifestyle changed dramatically from a week ago, but so has others’ perceptions of me. Because I live in such a very small, tight-knit community in Dominica, everyone there knows that I am a med student. In fact, except for some locals, everyone I interact with on a daily basis is either a med student or is somehow related to the med school. My sole identity is being a med student.

Now that I am in another country, surrounded by total strangers, I am just another tourist. No one here knows that I am a med student, and hence they don’t treat me any differently. Honestly, I am kind of enjoying the anonymity. In fact, I don’t think there are even any other Americans here. Everyone is either from Guadeloupe or they are from France and vacationing here. I’m really enjoying being a crazy American tourist who uses lots of strange hand motions to communicate (e.g. me trying to explain the word banana with my hands).

I can’t even explain how happy I am that I decided to go on a vacation during my semester break. When I’m in school, I get so consumed by everything that I sometimes forget to enjoy the little things, and it seems like med school is all there is in the world.

I’m hoping that I can take a little piece of the happiness that I found here home with me. And whenever I’m super stressed out about whether something affects an alpha or a beta receptor, I can think back to this beach and hear the sounds of the waves crashing and the feeling of the sun beating down on me. I guess the lesson I’ve learned is to always take the time to smell the coconuts, even when I’m immersed in random medical knowledge and can’t see past the book in front of me.

In one week I’ll be entering my fourth semester of med school, which is the latter half of my second year. Time has gone by so quickly here that I can hardly comprehend it. But as I sit here right now, about to head out to the beach again, I couldn’t feel more ready to take it on.