Page 11 - Humanism 2019
P. 11
You are amazing. You’ve got this. Don’t panic!
By Debbie Pugh, Receptionist at COMP-Northwest
have had the privilege to sit at the receptionist’s desk two. Those visitors are sometimes difficult to live with …
I for just over seven years now, and have been honored but remember, you are not on this journey alone!
to watch eight classes come in to COMP-Northwest. Each
class has had to run the gauntlet of Admissions; first, Faculty, staff and I have the privilege to hug you when
submitting all the mountains of paperwork to be you are overwhelmed, and to remind you how very
considered for an interview, then facing interviewers who special you truly are and how much you have already
smile and ask a myriad of questions, sometimes even gone through just to be at COMP-Northwest. I love
bringing the prospective student to tears. Admissions staff reminding you that you are truly the cream of the cream:
have waded through hundreds, and sometimes thousands, super-intelligent, unique, and stronger than you realize. I
of prospective students before they chose you. have been there with chocolate, cookies, hugs, and
reminders that you are in the right place. These are small
Now you are an excited and relieved future medical encouragements that can get you through the hard
student, accepted and planning all that goes with moving moments, regardless of any of self-doubt, or nagging or
to Lebanon, Oregon for your journey through COMP- self-defeating voices in your heart.
Northwest. Even before school begins, you come in to
buy books, look around the campus, I have watched you struggle,
visit with faculty, and sometimes sometimes for a long time, but never
come by to talk with me about your give up through first year, second
excitement, hopes, and dreams for year, and the Mt. Everest of second
your future as an emergency year — boards! One day, dawn will
medicine doctor, a family medicine break bright and cloud-free!
doctor, or even a surgeon. Rotations!
With rotations, the clouds part and
Welcome Week is another time to
sunshine floods in. You touch
live in the excitement, to get to
patients, help birth a new life, and
know your classmates, and to realize
may even occasionally hold a
the gravity of what you are about to
beating heart. Every day is a
embark on as you receive your white
promise of your dream coming true.
coat and medical bag. By the end of
And to think it only took two years
Welcome Week, you have medical
to get to this place. How quickly it
equipment, a locker, a parking pass,
really passes as you glance back to
and a few more days to reflect.
those dark and rainy days. Pressures are not so difficult
What is this journey to be for you?
now, but are viewed as just another challenge to conquer,
The first day of medical school comes rapidly and because you have grown and become stronger through the
overwhelmingly; you dive right into the new curriculum, studying, testing, sometimes re-testing, and struggles.
and it begins. Some days are so grueling that you wonder
I have had the privilege, and even a few tears of my own,
if you have made a mistake … and then the rains begin. It
as I’ve watched you and your graduating class. All the
not only rains and gets darker, but now studying is your
majesty of the day is a blur as you suddenly find yourself
full-time activity. There is not much time for
a resident doctor along with your graduating class, going
extracurricular activities, and soon it feels as if you might
to so many places throughout the United States, learning
never get there … to that dream … to that future as an
so much more, and standing one step closer to truly being
osteopathic physician.
an osteopathic physician!
You now have pressure to study, prepare for exams, get
As new medical students, the hugs, kind words,
your scores, and calculate each point for a passing grade.
occasional giggles, cookies and chocolate all help along
Along with that, for some of you come the unwelcome
the way, but truly …
visitors of frustration, self-doubt, and defeating voices.
Sometimes sadness and tears arise as you struggle with all You are amazing. You’ve got this. Don’t panic! n
the requirements competing for your time: preparing for
exams, and occasionally failing those exams by a point or Illustration courtesy of shutterstock.com
HUMANISM IN THE HEALTH SCIENCES 2019 • VOL. 22 8
