Exploring Yourself and Your Passions as a Pre-Medical Student
On resumes, degree audits, and in job interviews, I am a pre-medical student. That is the first thing that they see atleast: Blakeley Potts, Neuroscience major, Pre-Medical student. To people at school, and I bet most pre-health students can relate to this, your identity is shaped around your designation. School days are drowned with STEM classes and pre-health organization meetings. I attend these meetings and take dreaded classes, believing that I have to, all for the ultimate purpose of getting into medical school. Yes, medical school, an undergraduate pre-medical student’s idea of “making it up to the big leagues”. But…I continue to think, is it all worth it? Do we have to follow the same path as others, molding into the same robot, just to become a doctor?
We think that once we do all of these activities and study for all of these classes that our life will instantly become better. But, here’s the thing: it immediately consumed me and drowned all of my love for medicine that I once held. Following this “pre-medical student roadpath” felt like a checklist. With each checkmark, I was turning more into a conformist robot rather than Blakeley. I was a Stormtrooper in the pre-medical world, and it became truly exhausting. My whole reason for being pre-med was to pursue a passion, not burn it out. I wondered why I was going to medical events and getting involved in volunteering, not for the love for it, but for the notion it was going to get me into medical school.Â
But, how did this all change? Believe it or not, it was the closest person in my life that helped me: my mother. All throughout my life, I have been an avid literature connoisseur. I was obsessed with all things Shakespeare and Bronte. Occasionally I even took up poetry. Life before college was consumed with all things English, yet where was this life at Baylor? During parents weekend, my mother noticed this change in me. I did not read anymore nor did I write. This was what I was lacking and she sensed this loss before I. When I consulted her about how I felt so burned out and like everyone else, she was the first to mention how I should continue to pursue English. This practically lit up the dwindling fire in my mind: I remembered all the love I had for literature and how it was one of my biggest passions in life. She in turn caused me to declare a minor in English and join organizations such as Her Campus so that I can pursue my love.Â
While I still deeply love medicine so much, that is certainly not all that I am. Before getting into medical school and being a doctor, I am a human with many passions. I am constantly searching and discovering who I am, and I know the first step is to dive deeper into what I love. English and Medicine makes me the woman who I am, not an academic designation or career goal. My path is undefined, never to be defined by a fake “checklist” ever again.