At 11 p.m. PST on July 5 — less than three hours after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake rattled my home in Southern California — shock waves also went through the sports world. Basketball superstar Kawhi Leonard, who had just delivered Toronto its first ever NBA championship, surprisingly announced he would return to his native Los(...)
A Day in the Life
Learning to Run with Imposter Syndrome
Posted by | A Day in the LifeAs a college student, I had set my sights on making a difference in the research world. I was ecstatic when I was accepted to Johns Hopkins to pursue my graduate degree. However, starting graduate school was difficult for me. I felt constantly behind everyone around me, and it was clear that I was slowly(...)
Representing Diversity on Portrait Walls Around Johns Hopkins: One Stride Taken, Many to Go
Posted by | A Day in the LifeLast week, NPR published “Academic Science Rethinks All-Too-White ‘Dude Walls’ of Honor” on its website. This article addresses the message that walls of honor that mostly feature white men may send to nonwhite and nonmale trainees. Several academic institutions are dismantling or relocating their “dude walls” to send a more inclusive message, and this has(...)
How Mentoring a High School Student Helped Me Plan for My Future
Posted by | A Day in the Life“Don’t you ever get bored?” It wasn’t a question I’d expected from my high school summer student on her second day in the lab. And I was equally surprised when I found myself saying “all the time.” My recent experience mentoring a student has been rich and rewarding, but not for the reasons I anticipated.(...)
Tackling Twitter as a Graduate Student
Posted by | A Day in the LifeI grew up during the rise of social media. Born in 1995, I have watched social media transform from inconsequential platforms for storing your random thoughts to a multi-billion-dollar industry in which influence serves as a form of currency. I have had to learn how to navigate these changes on my own, and I have(...)
Finding the Medicine in Historical Drama
Posted by | A Day in the LifeEvery evening when I get home from campus, I put on the teakettle, get out my cross-stitch and flip on a TV show. Sawing noises and screaming come from the TV set as I stitch church steeples into blank linen. You may think I am watching American Horror Story or Hannibal, but the show is(...)
Meditation: Building a Community Across the Hopkins Campus
Posted by | A Day in the Life, Events and Happenings“Kidneys…relax…” I know where my kidneys are located thanks to my anatomy classes, but how would I make them relax, and do I even want them to relax? They fulfill a pretty crucial physiological role. These and many other thoughts came to mind as I sat during a guided, progressive relaxation mediation organized by medical(...)
Summer Transitions: Learnings from Residency
Posted by | A Day in the LifeEvery summer, a fresh crop of physicians enters the workforce. Overnight, trainees begin new roles and take on new responsibilities. You could imagine that we transition gracefully, like caterpillars turned butterflies, wings beating with effortless aerodynamics upon emerging from the chrysalis. Truthfully, we are more akin to baby birds, pushed off a branch and made(...)
Stockholm Syndrome City
Posted by | A Day in the LifeAt the time, chaos and disappointment were all I saw in Baltimore. Imagine sitting at the sixth story window, looking out across the Baltimore skyline, and seeing fire. Heading to work around 8 a.m., news circulates that armored vehicles are set to post around the medical campus, should riots become unruly. Morning turns to lunch,(...)
Knocking on the Door: How to Leave Your Postdoc Position
Posted by | A Day in the Life, Events and HappeningsGuest post by Parnaz Daneshpajouhnejad, M.D., a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The following is not Daneshpajouhnejad's own personal experience but rather inspired by a talk by Megan Bohn, assistant director of postdoctoral affairs, during the event, “Exit Interview: How to Tell the Boss(...)