The story so far..

Feels like just yesterday I attended orientation, being flooded with information about what being a doctor would require and how we would evolve as we delved further into the profession. I was filled with anxiety as I listened to residents, upperclassmen, and doctors (who told us to call them colleagues- which I thought was a great joke) tell us about their experience through medical school. How would I be able to do it? How would I one day know as much as they do and be so confident? Watching them speak I couldn’t help but feel the “doctorness” oozing out of them and I felt like a freshman entering college again- wide eyed and admiring in amazement at their superiority. While some of these feelings still linger in me (and as the speakers pointed out also in them) Emory has done a great job easing many of these anxieties.

The last 4 months have been exciting and engaging to say the least. But before I delve any further into what my experience has been so far let me tell you a little about myself. My name is Thali Sangha and I’m a first year student at Emory SOM (which you’ve obviously figured out) and I attended Emory for undergrad as well. You might think that having attended Emory as an undergrad would make me feel more at home, and yes to a certain degree it does. I walk over the same bridge I used to in undergrad on my way to biology, except this time I’m walking in the opposite direction towards the medical school. That’s about where the similarities end in my experience. Medical school has been a completely new journey at a familiar place. The great thing about Emory is that they throw you into the deep end with a life jacket. After we finished orientation we shadowed for a week in the hospital known as Week on the Wards. As Dr. Schwartz put it, this was our last time to be a lay person in the medical field. Any time after this point we would be expected to help rather than simply observe. I was fortunate to be placed in Grady- a hospital in downtown Atlanta full of interesting cases and characters. I could probably write a whole book about my week in Grady but I found myself doing more than observing during my time in Grady, which is often the case as they are shorthanded with help and inundated with patients. Already in my first week I was experiencing one of the main reasons I chose to stay at Emory. I had the opportunity to work hands on with patients rather than sitting back and simply observing. After that week we came back to Emory and spoke within our small groups (a group of 8 or so other students who you will spend the next 4 years discussing a wide variety of topics) to discuss our experiences.

Another great thing about Emory is the way they handle the transition into our new mentality of “lifelong learning”. They have slowly eased us into the workload- as I’m sure you’ve heard by now how much studying you’ll be doing once you enter medical school. Talking to my friends at other schools I listened to how overwhelmed they were with everything expected of them academically, whereas at Emory we were gradually being introduced to the language and skills of the field. Week by week the workload increased and some weeks were harder than others (me and biochemistry are still not friends). However, even as more was required of us academically we were still having debates about U.S. Healthcare, discussing patient autonomy, and learning how to perform a full physical (you and your classmates will become closer than you think). So while we were busy learning the science behind the medicine we were also still getting hands on experience with patients and what it would be like to actually practice in the field. This was great because it gave me a focus for my studying- I was able to see why all this information was necessary- as evident from my massive void of medical knowledge when learning to perform the physical or taking a patient history. Rather than being discouraged by this it has given me the drive to learn as much as I can to fill this gap as quickly as possible.

Hopefully you’ve gotten some idea of what school has been like so far. If you’re having trouble figuring out exactly what we do every day then I’ve done my job, because each day is a completely different experience and part of the reason why Emory has been so exciting thus far. Yes there is plenty of lecture, there is no getting around that, but interspersed within all those lectures are patient interviews, learning to do a physical exam, volunteering at local clinics in the evenings, and hanging out with your new friends. This week we are starting Prologue II and starting Human Anatomy and I’m feeling the same excitement and anxiousness as I did on week one again. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Until then,

Thali Sangha