A letter from June 9th, 2015

Dear FutureMe, It is the spring of our junior year of high school. Im all done with standardized testing and now im looking into colleges and im getting incredibly antsy with school. Our inability to personalize our education is exhausting. Intellectually, regents classes dont stimulate me. I cant wait to be able to spend my time doing things that stimulate me. Which brings me to the subject of this email. It should be such that youre ending your 5th year of medical residency so long as you still have this email and you didnt take a gap year and nothing else crazy happened which set you off course. More likely than not something did, because life is dynamic and everything is constantly changing but even if youre not a 5th year resident, this is still applicable. Your meek, innocent, probably stupid 16 year old self is begging you not to lose your moxy, your juju. We were lucky enough to find what makes us tick early on in life. Science, and volunteerism. Remember mr Tronolone? kierstens 8th grade social studies teacher? the man owned 2 or 3 local restaurants and was financially pretty well off but somewhere in his life he realized that restaurants didnt make him tick quite the way education did. SO what did he do? he went back to school and became a teacher one of the best ones ever at that. Do what you have to in order to love what youre doing. Never settle for mediocrity. Twice in the last month, i have found myself nearly at tears for excitement because of the things that the future could possibly bring. Once at the Siena AMC bs/md program and its emphasis on servitude and morals and ethics, and a second time, today because i was researching the doctors without borders program. People and science make me tick. I like people, i like meeting people, i like lealrning things about people, and i like helping peple. Just the other day i spontaneously started photographying and interviewing random people at the *** pride festival with kiersten because i wanted to meet them and i was bored just sitting around. People make me tick. And knowing why and how things work makes me tick. Ever since freshman year biology i have developed an infatuation with science. NOthing brings me greater excitment than truly understanding the mechanism behind things. Put those two things together, a love of science and a love of helping people and you get my currently desired profession of medicine. Im unsure of what i like the most right now, emergency medicine, pediatric cardiology, OBGYN, or pediatric oncology but all of them excite me beyond comprehension. The idea of participating in the doctors without borders program makes my heart race. So im emailing you to beg you to remember your young 16 year old self. Remember how these programs made her tick. Never settle for mediocrity. Its gonna be hard as hell to make it work, but you have to try. Do what you know you want to do. Do what will make your soul smile in 60 years when you recount it to your eager grand children, what will warm your heart when you think of it on your ***** bed. Never accept mediocrity. Whatever youre doing right now professionally, be the best you can be and be the happiest you can be. If youre not happy, do something different. Dont settle for unhappiness. DO what makes you tick, never lose sight of your internal clock.