A Day in the Life of a Medical Student

Through triumphs, inspiration and heartache, our medical students offer rich, vivid accounts of their time at the school of medicine. Here are some of our favorites:

The Hidden Joys of Medical School
The rigor of medical school provides little time to celebrate or reflect on one’s accomplishments. The truly exhilarating moments, however, come most unexpectedly.

Living Out My Faith: Being a Muslim Medical Student at Johns Hopkins
“I am Muslim,” says Nimrah Baig, a third-year medical student. Her words do not sound like a label, but rather a bold summation of an entire world that she slowly begins to introduce me to. “My faith is something I live every day. My actions, how I treat others and my goals in life are all manifestations of my faith.”

Nearing the Finish: A Reflection on Medical School
As a twenty-one-year-old, I had lifted a liver from the abdomen, held a heart in my hand, traced the course of a person’s wrinkle down his neck, all in the first month of medical school. I peered at preserved specimens of lungs, intestines, and kidneys in the cases at the California Science Center. The woman standing next to me breathed, “This is unbelievable.” This is my gravity.

22 Years Later: Learning the Biology of My Mother’s Cancer
No one prepares you for listening to a lecture about how your mother died. Medical students are trained to recognize grief and distress in patients and invite them to talk about it. We are taught the complex molecular physiology behind diseases common and rare, minor and terminal. But we are not trained to see our own family’s tragedy writ large on a lecture screen, broken down into bullet points and illustrated with surgical images.

A Medical Student Finds Beauty in Studying
I greet the sun and see past its farewell each day with my study guide in hand. Flashcards accompany my meals and walks have functionally become DVT prophylaxis rather than enjoyable excursions.

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