Ahhh. Welcome everyone!
I feel like it’s been a hot minute since I have actually written anything. But since White Coat day is coming up quick, I figured I’d reflect on mine!
What is a White coat? Why do we have a CEREMONY?
To me, the white coat symbolizes the official start of my medical school journey. A white coat used to only be worn by physicians (it’s like our biggest giveaway/symbol that we are a doctor), and to me it just makes the start of my journey official. I’m stepping into this long, hard, and difficult, yet rewarding and esteemed role. Since roles and times have changed, there are a lot more medical professionals outside of physicians who wear white coats. But the symbolism for us stays the same.
But why a ceremony? Well for one, you worked for tail off to get here. It usually takes more than one try to get into medical school. And if it only took you one congrats! You are in the minority. I would say I envy you, and at one point I would have. But I don’t anymore. (See my post Looking Back…Reflecting on How Far I’ve Come). And even before trying, you’ve had to jump over countless hurdles and do some pretty intense things to just try to put your application in. Not to mention the taxing journey of applying, writing your personal statement, your secondaries, and eventually your interviews. All of that rides on the one decision you hope to get: which is an acceptance!
The ceremony to me was a way to accept that I was finally here. I made it. I was going to be a doctor. The only thing standing in my way between me and my degree is me. Even though this past year it felt like there were many other external factors affecting that, it really is just down to me. Makes me think of that Beyonce song, “Me, Myself, & I…” lol. 
It was also a way to symbolize to our family that going forward things will be different. We will be thrown into the world of medicine and being a medical student. Our lives were about to change indefinitely, both good and bad. That we had to accept that things would be different. That our hard road was not over, but just beginning.
Since My White Coat
Well, for starters I finished one year. One. Whole. Freaking. Year. And I gotta say, this clearly makes me qualified to give advice.
I feel like I’ve stated this before, but you won’t realize how difficult it really is until you are dropped in the middle of it. It’s like you are dropped into the middle of an ocean with strong currents and you need to learn to either sink or swim. You hope you can swim. And for the most part, you will wade through it. Sometimes barely. Sometimes you’ll be just fine. And other times you will feel like you are being dragged under by the current no matter how hard you are trying to come up for air.
And then you look back and realize all the crazy amount of stuff you learned. You will learn basic medical exam skills and how to talk to patients. You will learn so much OMM! Unfortunately, its not always what you wished you learn. It’s always when you really need an area worked on that you realize you didn’t learn that yet… But that’s okay. You will learn a lot that you can use. You will start to see which areas of medicine pique your interest and which ones don’t.
You will push yourself in so many ways; cultivating in either a good ending or a disastrous one. And that’s okay.
And just like that *snap of your fingers* an entire year will be over and you will be 1/4 of a doctor. And you will look back at that year of your life when the next class comes through excited to receive their white coats and reflect on how fast that year went by, how far you’ve come, and how hard you’ve worked.
End thoughts:
Celebrate your white coat day. That is what it is meant for! Celebrate with your family, your friends, and yourself. Take lots of pictures. Proudly show your parents your campus when they come to town, even though you’ve only spent a week of orientation there and barely know where anything is yet either. Meet as many people as possible during orientation; because that may be as social as you will be all year long lol.
Enjoy this day. This may be the most excited you are about medical school. It does unfortunately fade. You will want to reflect back to remind yourself how happy and accomplished you are when the days are long and hard and you feel you can’t go on.
And remember, every time you put on your white coat from here on out, you step into the role of being a doctor. Only you can decide what kind of doctor you want to be.
Cheers and congrats to all those joining the KCU family this year! I will see you new Joplin students this August.
