Finding the known in the unknown as a medical student away from home
(10/24/24 12:00pm)
Being in a crowd of unknown people is simultaneously freeing and terrifying.
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Being in a crowd of unknown people is simultaneously freeing and terrifying.
For years, the passage of Amtrak trains through Durham have helped me to mark key timepoints of the day.
It’s no secret that Duke students love waiting in line.
I really love Olive Garden. It’s where I’ve celebrated my birthday for many years, where my parents and I stop on vacation for a nice meal, where my family dined the night before I left for college — the list goes on, but many important moments in my life have been commemorated in the company of free breadsticks. Sure, in recent years, I’ve gained more of an appreciation for trying local food and expanding my palate, but there’s just something so heartwarming about the predictability of a chain — especially one that showers you with freebies.
In Cameron Indoor Stadium, section 17 is front and center — Cameron Crazies pack the undergraduate student section more than an hour before tipoff and serve as the nucleus of energy that envelops the building at gametime. Many of the chants, cheers and jeers for which the Blue Devils have become famous originate from these packed rows of fans.
Saturday was a special day for Duke, with the Blue Devils reveling in the limelight of the college football universe as College GameDay came to the heart of campus for the first time. As a medical student who’d just taken a board exam and moved from an apartment to a house, I was eager to have a day devoid of responsibility. This is my College GameDay story:
Clinical year clerkships are the crux of the medical student experience. Scurrying from place to place, adapting to new environments, adjusting roles and personas amid ever-changing team dynamics — these all become part of the daily routine.
Life is all about trying new things. At least that’s what I told myself when a friend invited me on a ski trip several weeks ago. I’d never skied before, and as someone whose routine activity schedule has grown more boring this year, the opportunity for adventure seemed alluring.
There’s something special about seeing places that are usually hustling and bustling completely devoid of energy, the helter-skelter nature of a teeming thoroughfare transformed into silence and quiet. My experience working nights at Duke Hospital was no different.
In the period of a week, two of Duke’s most influential administrators announced their departures. Provost Sally Kornbluth will leave her role to take the reins as president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in January, and A. Eugene Washington, president and chief executive officer of Duke Health, is stepping down at the end of June.
In life, we’re often faced with the task of keeping in touch with friends and acquaintances, but the potential venues for these meetups are seemingly endless. Should it be a catch-up over food? Beverage? If so, what type? Is asking someone to go on a walk too weird? What about inviting someone to study with you?
To say the second year of medical school is an adjustment from the first is an understatement. From books to wards, from flexible days to regimented routine, the transformation is stark.
In the spirit of QuadEx, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently about how the Duke student experience could be improved. Having spent four years as an undergraduate, one gap year hearing undergraduates complain and one year as a medical student, I’ll offer a few suggestions for the administration to consider:
Around a month ago, I met a man from Lubbock, Texas, outside the Cook Out on Hillsborough Road.
Airports hold a special place in my heart—no other setting features life’s rich tapestry laid out in such a chaotic and amusing fashion.
When I lived in Massachusetts last year, I went to the gas station every Sunday morning.
The sixth floor of Duke’s medical school is one of my favorite places to study. It’s an expansive space with a smattering of chairs, tables and even a piano, graced with a high ceiling above and a stunning view of the campus beneath.
When my medical school classmates hear that I went to Duke for undergrad, they assume I know a lot about Durham restaurants. This is a very fair assumption. If I met someone who lived somewhere for four years, I would assume they could at least name a few good restaurants in the area. However, people severely underestimate my ignorance about all things culinary in Durham.
One of the time-honored traditions of being a first-year medical student, aside from saturating social media with far too many white coat ceremony photos, is dissecting cadavers in the anatomy lab.
On the first day of spring break, Duke’s campus was mobbed.