Back to School
There was nothing more thrilling than going to school orientation in the early 00s and receiving that fateful colored sheet that outlined everything we would need for the year (yes, I already know I was (am) kind of a nerd). We would scour the Sunday paper ads and make shopping lists for Target and Meijers and wherever else we could find:
No. 2 pencils, wide-ruled loose leaf paper, 24 pack of crayons, a sharpener, a ruler, etc. At some point these transitioned to 5-star mead college-ruled notebooks, a TI- 84 graphing calculator, highlighters, pilot gel G2 pens, innumerable binders, textbook covers.
The items differed from year to year but the underlying feeling remained the same:
A promise of being ready for anything the upcoming year would hold, so much potential of growth, so much learning to be done.
And truly, a lot of learning I have done - after kindergarten and elementary (grades 1-5) and middle school (grades 6-8) and high school (grades 9-12) and
Undergraduate (B.S. in Neuroscience): 3 years
1 gap year
Medical school (M. D.): 4 years
Residency in Neurological Surgery: 7 years
Fellowship in Skull Base and Brain tumors: 1 year
15 years after graduating high school and I’m still going back to school (love that for me). Medicine is absolutely a lifelong learning pursuit, and honestly that mentality should be pervasive across all fields and even after formal schooling ends — there’s always more to learn. In this final year of my training, I’m still so excited for each chapter and will continue to feel the passage of time and growth during this special time of year.
The new clothes, backpacks, lunchboxes, school supplies - it was all a symbol for the next year. At some point, there were no more lists but the excitement remained - a new year of college, a new year of medical school, the next year of residency. At some point for me that meant that back to school shopping meant new scrubs, new scrub caps, new hospital shoes. More than the new stuff, I taking the opportunity as a time to reset: reflecting on the year that passed, and now being prepared for the next. For me, back to school was all about setting yourself up for success to become who you wanted to be - the future possibilities were (and are) limitless.
That physical thrill of back-to-school shopping changes as you hit a new milestone in each step of schooling (esp healthcare training pathway) but that mentality of a new year beginning has never left me. A promise of so much more to learn and knowing that we can never know it all, but in spite of it all the goal is to always get better and strive for more knowledge and become the best version of you.