Dear Imperfection, As an artist, dealing with you comes with the territory. You show up in brushstrokes, uneven lines, colors that don’t blend the way I imagined. In art, imperfection can even be beautiful. But as a researcher, you terrify me. I think about the weight of getting things wrong. Not small mistakes — not …
Dear Money
Dear Money, You’re an uncomfortable topic in medicine. One people dance around, soften, or pretend doesn’t matter. But you do matter — not as the goal, but as the context. When I think about becoming a physician-scientist, I don’t imagine wealth as excess or status. I think about sustainability. Freedom. The ability to choose meaningful …
Dear MCAT
Dear MCAT, You’ve been a lot. I’ve officially started studying for you, and honestly, it’s been intense in a way I didn’t fully expect. A lot of the content feels unfamiliar, and some of it feels like I’m learning a new language all over again. But I’ve found that sticking to Anki, committing to a …
Do I really Have What It Takes to be a Doctor?
Dear Future Me, How do I know if I have what it takes to be a doctor - let alone a physician-scientist? I’ve seen so many doctors work and walked through the steps they took to get there: the late nights studying, the seven-hour MCAT, the constant push to network, build relationships, and apply yourself …
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Dear Scientific Writing (Poster)
Dear Scientific Writing (Poster), I love to write, and I love science.So you’d think scientific writing would come naturally to me — you’d be only half right. This summer, I’ve been working on an independent research project that I’m so excited about. But I’ve never done anything like this before. At first, I was overflowing …
Dear Lab, You Are More Than An Item On My Checklist
Dear Lab, Anyone on the pre-med track knows how valuable having lab experience on your resume can be. When I first joined a lab, I did it with that in mind, but over time, I realized that this was more than just a resume booster — this was my future. I needed to treat every …
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Dear Academia Gossip, You make me Uncomfortable
Dear Academia Gossip, When I walked into the world of research, I had no idea you existed. I knew people were competitive, smart, and driven — that wasn’t surprising. What I didn’t expect was how mean some of them could be. I was standing outside the office of a prominent researcher at my university when …
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Creating My Autobiography 