Reflections on my first day

In the morning, Dean Pizzo welcomed us to Stanford Medicine. He put our year in perspective by pointing out that 50 years ago, the year that Stanford Medicine moved to Palo Alto, the structure of DNA had been elucidated only 6 years prior, the polio vaccine discovered only 3 years prior, and now, our class will be the last to have courses in the old medical school buildings. He also shared several pearls of wisdom that I really appreciated:

1. "Bring the glow back"
2. "Become a champion"
3. "Make the U.S. number one"

1. In reference to his urge to preserve the moral high ground of physicians in the face of good clinical care and compassion competing with financial gain.
2. Ie. find your passion and pursue a path of medicine you really care about and want to improve
3. Improve health outcomes so that the U.S. is number one in more metrics of health care besides administrative expenditures (currently the only thing we are number one in).

Next came Dean Prober who gave a Top 10 list of reasons why we made the right choice to attend Stanford. My favorites included #10 (Geography) and #1 (Your Classmates). My 85 classmates (whose names I'm trying hard to learn!) are pretty cool folks, 20 countries are represented, 8 have PhDs, 12 have Masters degrees, 8 other were varsity athletes in college, and besides the stats, everyone I have met so far has been very genuine, interesting, and engaging. I think Dean Prober nailed it.

I feel so honored to be apart of this community and anticipate that medical school will change me in more ways than I can possibly understand at this moment. As I went to bed last night, I was thinking about quotations that encapsulated how I want to approach my education, here are a few that came across my mind:

"We are what we repeatedly do"
"Learn from others, learn from your mistakes, keep moving forward"
"Always do what you are afraid to do"

And, of course, my biggest focus: "Become the best damn doctor I can possibly be".

PS. What do you think of my new look?! :)