The heights of great ones*
Reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight
But they while their companions slept
Were toiling upwards through the night
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
It's finally here! I have been thinking about starting a blog for the longest time, but as the saying goes nothing happens before its time. This is the time! I will use this first post to tell you a bit about myself and why I wanted to start this blog.
Reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight
But they while their companions slept
Were toiling upwards through the night
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
It's finally here! I have been thinking about starting a blog for the longest time, but as the saying goes nothing happens before its time. This is the time! I will use this first post to tell you a bit about myself and why I wanted to start this blog.
I am currently a medical student (class of 2013) at an amazing US medical school. Getting to this point in my life and my career is a long story; maybe someday I'll go into more details about that. For now, suffice it to say I feel like the Universe has been smiling with me, most of the time at least. I love writing, but over the years I have found myself writing less and less, so hopefully this will help me rekindle that passion. I hope to use this space to talk about my experiences in med school, life in general as a med student, and as a journal to catalog my preparation for the USMLE Boards exams.
In order for you to understand why I love the above quote and used it as the inspiration for the title of this blog, I will have to share a bit of my background with you. I grew up in a tiny rural district (not in the US) and attended public schools where students were given government issued reading books. These reading books basically had little fictional stories that we would read together as a class at school. There was one particular story that resounded with me, and I'll share it with you. Basically there were these kids attending two schools that were competing with each other in track and field. At one school, the kids had all the resources they needed to train; at the other school the kids had little or no resources. For many years, the kids with all the resources would win in these competitions. Then one year, the kids without resources got a coach who believed in them, and told them they could win. This quote by Longfellow became their motto. They would train after school everyday, and do their homework by candle light at nights. Long story short, the kids with no resources won the competition that year.
I love this story and have used it to motivate me through life. I really do believe hard work pays off, and am looking forward to many more late nights as I embark on this journey of medical school and beyond. Thanks for checking out my blog, and I hope you'll continue on this ride with me!
xoxo,
HOGO
Ps. Please feel free to leave a comment, and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for me!
* I changed the "men" in the original quote to "ones" to make it more inclusive.
Hi, It's great that you started a blog. I am a fellow c/o of '13 in a US med school, so I can understand what you're going through :) I'll be checking in often...be sure to write often!
ReplyDeleteHey, I'm inspired by the Longfellow quote. I'm also in the "lucky '13" but a US-citizen attending a Caribbean medical school. I plan to come back often to read about your experiences :)
ReplyDelete