Grateful

As I sit here and procrastinate learning more about neuroanatomy, I cannot help but think about how grateful I am to be a medical student at USCSOMG. At times, it has been extremely hard to find joy and thankfulness through the mounds of endless studying. We spend countless hours learning minutia about how the body is so precisely and perfectly created. Then, we spend countless more hours learning about how, if one tiny thing goes wrong, the whole system can be altered or even destroyed. This has been frustrating, and sometimes we all struggle in seeing the clinical correlations and relevance of the information learned. These hours that we spend studying and worrying about the how the human body works can be at the expense of not only our own health, but also our relationships and our social lives. Our lives and identities can at times get wrapped up in our successes and failures throughout our medical education. However, as one of my classmates so eloquently said, “There is no place that I would rather be than here in Greenville”. I would add on to that and say that there is nothing that I would rather be doing than pursuing medicine.

In my opinion, Greenville is the best possible place to be for anyone desiring to undertake this journey. Our medical school is different. I have known since high school that I wanted to go to Greenville and although seeing it from the outside was wonderful, now being a student, I truly understand what that difference is – the people. Our administrators are spectacular, and they truly care about both our successes and struggles inside and outside of the classroom. I honestly do not know how our admissions committee does it, but they manage not only to fill each class with people from all walks of life, but also pick individuals who end up making this cohesive group that is supportive, encouraging, and humbly determined to change the world. I would not (do not) hesitate at all to go to any one of my classmates with something that baffles me in school or with a problem that I am having outside of class. Furthermore, I know that each of them would do everything in his/her power to help me not only understand, but also appreciate the topic. As well, our relationships with each other span far outside of the classroom, because we are extremely invested in each other’s personal successes outside of academics.

Day by day, I am constantly reminded of how thankful I am for everyone in my class. When medical school is at its most stressful (I am speaking of you, test week), you really see our class pull together to support one another. Despite the drive to be successful in our modules and our desire to look forward to the future, I cannot help but be stopped in my tracks and become aware of the beauty of each moment. There is true value gained in pausing and recognizing the blessings that have been granted us, and I would encourage everyone to do the same. We should all pause, to allow ourselves to be present and joyful in the moment, especially that we are all experiencing this crazy and wonderful journey together.

Dory Askins

It is such an honor to be a member of the Class of 2021. I am originally from Greenville, SC and graduated from Clemson University in May 2017. I was blessed to be a part of MedEx for a number of years and have known that I wanted to attend USCSOMG since high school. I am extremely obsessed with all things Clemson and fashion!