Growing Up

Growing Up Hey you! Yeah, you youre Chris, right? And you just wrote this blog, right? Okay. Now weve got that out of the way, allow me to introduce myself. Im you from July 20, 2016 yeah, about 9 years, or 3000-some days into the future. Pretty cool, huh? Well I guess you know one thing now, you will be alive in 2016 breathing that sigh of relief, I see ;) You see, I wanted to drop in and, you know, tell you a few things about the future that you might want to know, now that the excitement of getting into MIT hasnt totally worn off yet. Whats that? You want to go play Pokemon? What version are you on? Ah, Diamond and Pearl, I see. Psh, stop wasting your time on that stupid game. Let me tell you that in the world that I come from and youll get to experience in the future youd be catching Pokemons in real life. Yup, in real life!! No stop, this doesnt mean you get to quit school since youre going to become a Pokemon trainer youll be catching them on your iPhone. Oh yeah thats right, the iPhone just came out a few months ago for you, huh? Well, heres the latest model if you want to look at it pretty nifty! Before I forget, be smart and grab some Apple stock now youll thank me in 2016 :) So what was I going to say? Oh, you dont know this yet, but youll become a doctor in internal medicine. Your days will be filled with admitting patients, writing notes, and putting in orders in the computer. It might hard to imagine, but one day youll be able to read this CT scan with ease: Hey, it sucks in the beginning, but once you get to supervise interns, it will be pretty cool :) So dont worry too much about the 8.01 test you didnt do so hot on; it doesnt matter a bit in the end! You said how was MIT? You know MIT was a wild rollercoaster ride. As you go on and pass/no record wears off, youll see that this is a place of heartbreaking defeats but at the same time, of exhilirating victories. Even now, nine years later, I havent found quite the same place like it. Youll go on to major in biology and dabble with history on the side. The best classes you take will be the ones that you signed up for on whim, and the best conversations youll have will be those that happen at three in the morning. That reminds me stay up late like youre already doing, since you wont get many opportunities for that in the future. I wake up now at 5:45 AM on most days yeah, dont make that face, I know you want to drop classes that begin before 10 AM if you can. :P Its ok to stay up till 4 AM surfing Wikipedia or finishing that new book that you just started. It wont last, so enjoy it! Go do as many cool things as you can it will be so hard to do them later get on the Charles and go sailing, take pistol for PE, and get your Pirates License while youre at it. You will go on to spend IAPs in Spain and Japan, and try to go on the Cambridge Exchange I know I always regret not having done that. Also, dont worry too much if you feel bored in Boston youll spend all your time after you leave Boston in New York, and trust me, there will be days when you miss being able to look out onto the Charles and having a public transit system that actually has enough space for all its riders. MIT will also be the hardest thing you do you know, as you go on, people will say that med school is bad, internship is bad but there will be nothing quite like MIT. People said intern year after med school is hard, but I realized during intern year, you just have to show up if you show up, you will get through the day. Youll call all the consults, see all the patients, write all the notes, finish your work at the end of the day and go home. MIT is different its a neverending beast. You will wake up covered in sweat 2 days before the final realizing that you still have very little idea on how to tackle a certain problem; you will walk out of lecture having taken a dozen pages of notes and only understanding maybe a dozen lines; you will study for a week and still be rewarded with a B-, which you may feel very relieved about ironically. The kind of training that MIT provides is tough, but its however also very rewarding, as you are constantly being pushed to your limits and dared to go further than you have gone before. Ironically, goal-setting has been something that Ive been striving to do more of since I left without the constant pressure, the onus is on you to stay ahead of the game. Dont take any day for granted its a joy to have so much free time dedicated to learning, and you ought to take advantage of that now. In college, you learn and dont get paid, but one day, youll get paid and not have much time to learn. What else? Lets see I know youre swearing off coffee now, but in a few years, youll be chugging a 16 oz. thermos daily. Yeah, yeah those early mornings in medical school and residency will get to youbut its ok, coffee isnt that bad, after all :) Also, see this picture that you put up on the blog you just wrote? 9 years from now, youll be married to Kathy 10. Youll have a great wedding, and over 1/3 of your guests 34/99 will be MIT graduates (from class of 06 to 15)!! Youll write it in your wedding vows one day shell be the best thing that happened to you at MIT :)