Hello. Let me tell you about the last few years of my life.

Hi! My name is Samhita. I’m currently a Senior at the University of Michigan, graduating with a major in Neuroscience and a minor in Writing. After undergrad, I will be completing a Master’s in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University and hope to attend medical school afterwards. 

 

My main curiosity with writing, especially narrative writing, is rooted in a constant attention to detail throughout my childhood. However, that awareness lacked analysis. It lacked the “how?” and “why?”, while only consisting of the “what?”. This practice came to bite me in the butt during my high school literature classes. Subsequently, I attributed bad grades on essays to a lack of interest in the field. That is, until I heard American poet Amanda Gorman speak on the inaugural stage. 

 

Hearing her poem was very much a lightbulb moment for me because I found myself analyzing techniques like pace and diction subconsciously when she recited her poem. It was the first time I had found an application to literature outside of my high school class. At the same time, I was taking a Narrative Writing class, English 325 by Fritz Swanson, in which I eagerly indulged in its assigned readings. These ingredients would create a successful recipe for pursuit in the writing field and foster a newfound interdisciplinary interest in Narrative Medicine.

 

I was first introduced to Narrative Medicine from PhiDE alumna Yoshiko Iwai. She is a medical student at the UNC School of Medicine in Chapel Hill and completed her Master’s in Narrative Medicine during her gap years. She talked about how important it was to nourish a practice in the humanities before attending medical school, where humanities severely lacks representation. 

 

Narrative medicine is a new field that advocates for turning the focus of medicine back to patient care and patient stories which have often been disregarded as new research and technologies emerged. In medical school, students are taught the language of science of which they use to treat patients, with strict medical terminology, strict assessment of signs and symptoms, etc. Narrative medicine is a way to ground a doctor and bring them back to what matters the most: the patients, their stories, and healing.

 

While I’m excited to formally start my Narrative Medicine journey in the fall, I’m scared that I will lose sight of my pre-medical experiences and the inspirations they’ve brought me thus far. So when I found out that I had the opportunity to create a writing project of my choosing during my minor capstone class, I wanted to write my past and present pre-med experiences down. I found this practice to not only allow me to prioritize which of my experiences have shaped my reasoning for pursuing medicine, but also allow me to reflect on them. 

 

When I started volunteering at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in high school, I knew at that time that I wanted to become a doctor because I wanted to help people and I liked science. Yes, that was my answer. However, the answer was extremely cliché. The nuance of this situation is that the reasoning to become a doctor evolves over time. My reasoning for wanting to become a doctor has drastically changed from when I was in high school. My reasoning for wanting to become a doctor has even changed from last year as a Junior in college. The central question that I want to address in my capstone project is why do people want to go into medicine and become a physician? 

 

So please, come with me on this journey, as I explore its multitude of answers.