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On Acceptance: Reflections from the HMS/HSDM First-Year Class
For 210 of us, this has been a year of firsts: first donning of a white coat, first incision through a cadaver, first exposure to the fine art of free lunches. But as the graduation tents go up in the medical school courtyard and we prepare to take on the mantle of second year, it's worth reflecting on what brought us all here in the first place: the acceptance letter. When we got that e-mail inviting us to HMS, we were sprinkled throughout the country and the world, working at lab benches, delivering babies, teaching in inner-cities. Here's a sampling of five student experiences.
Shruthi Rajashekara
I was on a safari in South Luangwa National Park in Zambia with my family. I was working in Lusaka and had hoped to hear from Harvard before I left on vacation, but I boarded what I can still only suspect was an aircraft and abandoned cell phone reception and internet access for a few days with no news of where I had been accepted. I know I had already waited for months to hear from schools, so I should have been able to wait a few more days, especially since lions, leopards, and giraffes are easily distracting, but by the third day of my trip, I was getting antsy. I asked the owners of the camp if there was any way to check my email. They walked my family and me to a neighboring village where they had set up their operations, and in a small cement building surrounded by huts, I found a computer with internet. Of course, it took at least ten minutes to open my account, but once I did, I think the entire village heard me scream. And then they heard my mother scream.
Julian Thomas
It was a weekday morning when I learned of my acceptance to Harvard Medical School. I honestly don't recall whether I received notice by mail or email. I do remember the feeling after I saw the acceptance. It took a while to hit me. I had started tutoring and was looking for places online to advertise to potential clients in the area. It was a sunny, crisp spring morning. Skinny beams of sunlight pushed through the gap between the window curtains. I pulled aside the curtains and opened the window like I did every sunny morning. Hens just below my window clucked a cadence that had been going at a low volume since sunrise. Intermittently, the three goats in the neighboring backyard would bleat a response. This morning performance was a signal for everyone who did not already know - it was time to wake up. It was a normal day in Oakland, California.
I was acclimated to hearing goats and chickens as counterpoint to the sounds of chest-rattling bass from sub-woofers and low-flying police helicopters. I lived on a street that separated a well-to-do neighborhood full of young professionals and urban homesteaders from one in the throes of civil collapse, crime, and a heavy police presence. My life was comfortably situated on the boundary between two worlds.
I thrived in dynamic "in-betweenness." Reading my admissions letter was at once exciting and sobering. I held an invitation to study at the most prestigious medical school in the nation, but under conditions. I would have to leave the home I had created for myself and start a new one in one of the country's oldest cities. The prospect of leaving my borderland had not completely registered with me even after I had completed the interviews and started receiving admissions decisions.
I sat reading the letter in my bedroom, thinking what my next step should be. The problem with borderlands is that they are used to define the boundaries of two spaces, but the borders themselves are ill-defined. With a step forward or backward, you are no longer on the border. Standing still had its own perils. I might succumb to indecision, or worse yet, complacency. "Stay or go?" I revisited the question many times in the weeks that followed. In the end I decided to step forward into the "unknown." I had so many uncertainties and questions from the moment I read my acceptance to Harvard Medical School. Would it be possible for me to fit in at a place that had been established for so long? Was change going on at HMS? Could I find another in-between space to call home? At the end of my first year and after three moves, I am relieved and excited to say "yes" to all!
Allen Ho
I was hard at work as a Fulbright Fellow in Managua, Nicaragua when the email popped up in my inbox. I whooped and hollered, celebrated with my co-workers for a couple minutes, then took the rest of the day off. I left the compound where I worked and strolled around the surrounding neighborhoods with my iPod playing MIA - Paper Planes, marveling at just how beautiful life can be.
Grace Malvar
8:20am: Okay, it is not worth losing sleep over hours of hitting REFRESH on my web browser every 2 minutes. They said "mid-March" but the Ides happened on a Sunday. They have real people who have real lives who do not work on weekends. Calm down. Get up and get out! Don't be late for work.
10:20am: An hour into work...and I haven't done shit. Feeling antsy. **REFRESH** The internet is evil! Please stop refreshing the browser! **REFRESH** Be productive! Grrr, no email yet. Whateverz. This day needs to be over. Boss isn't here so I think I will take a long lunch. I think we are getting dim sum today. I should email the group. Okay, Grace, you don't need to keep checking your email every 2 minutes.
**REFRESH**
::NO NEW MAIL::
**exasperated sigh**Hmph!
**REFRESH**
[NEW MAIL]
From HOUSE OF SALVATION GROUP (this is the name of my karaoke crew in the East Bay)
Subject: DIM SUM LUNCH in CHINATOWN?
Grace wants me to bump the lunch thread.... So today at Legendary Palace at 12:30???
Who allz is in again??
Joshua
Maya
Trey
Grace
Stephanie
Laura
Mary
Who else???
I hit **REPLY**
Hi guys! My ass just got to work... I just parked in the garage... so I'm driving yonder in Oakland for dim summa dat!
11:15am: Yes! No one paged me. No family meetings today. What's the traffic like on the Bay Bridge?.... hmm. Okay, I should get there in time.
**sneaks out of the office**
11:35am: (Oakland Chinatown)
"Har gaw" "Siu mai" "mango pudding" "egg custard" "shrimp balls" "chinese broccoli with oyster sauce" "sio pao" "Whaaat? $7 a person!? SWEEET!"
12:20pm: Ahh that was a lovely lunch with the crew. I should've ordered some more siu mai but whatever... everything was delicious and so cheap! Great value, f'realz. I like the offerings at Legendary Palace in Oakland, on 7th Street and Franklin. Ugh, I am so full. Too bad we weren't able to hit up the 'Vation to do some shopping (that's the Salvation Army thrift store, the namesake of our group). I gotta get back to work. I hope there won't be any traffic on the way back.
**refreshes web browser on phone while driving to find the freeway entrance**
OKAY, Grace, you do not need to be checking your email every 2 minutes... AND YOU ARE DRIVING. That stuff can wait. That is a HEALTH HAZARD. Cell phones and driving. NOT CUTE!
[NEW MAIL]
From McEvoy, Joanne M
Subject: Welcome to the HMS Class of 2013
"Dear Miss Malvar,
I am delighted to inform you that the Committee on Admissions has voted to offer you a place in the first-year class of the New Pathway Program at Harvard Medical School entering in August, 2009. Congratulations!"
**REFRESH**
That can't be right.
[READ MAIL]
From McEvoy, Joanne M
Subject: Welcome to the HMS Class of 2013
"Dear Miss Malvar,
I am delighted to inform you that the Committee on Admissions has voted to offer you a place in the first-year class of the New Pathway Program at Harvard Medical School entering in August, 2009. Congratulations!"
**REFRESH**
CALM DOWN! STOP SHAKING! CALM DOWN! PULL OVER TO THE SHOULDER. SAFETY FIRST. THIS IS NOT HAPPENING! STOP SHAKING!
**PULLS OVER TO THE SHOULDER... aaaand **REFRESH**
OKAY IT IS HAPPENING. LET ME CONFIRM...
**REFRESH**
CALL MOM!
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