Be a sponge

I had lunch with the med/psych program director for my midpoint evaluation. His feedback was different than any of the feedback I have gotten during other midpoint evaluations, which more often than not are formalities and not all that helpful. "I want you to take a step back," he said. "I want you to absorb everything that's going on around you. Be a sponge."

This advice was especially interesting to me because it echoes something that a close friend told me as I headed off to medical school: "Be a medical anthropologist. Look at what works and what doesn't work in the medical system and think about how you would do it differently." So, throughout medical school, I have been purposefully doing just that. Here at UC Davis, taking a step back and observing as much as possible of my surroundings and the people around me, that is all the more important as I am trying to figure out whether this is the right residency program for me.