BU IYRT Team
Photo provided by Somesh Kesarla Suresh
If you’re reading this, thank you for taking the time.
If you’re reading this, thank you for taking the time.
In second grade, my father gave me a pink-and-white canvas notebook and said, “This is your diary. You can write whatever you want in it.” That notebook, and the ones that followed, were my lifeline through moving to a different country, applying to college and then med school, making and losing friends… It wasn’t just a record of my life, writing played an active part in releasing pent-up emotions, reflecting on what they meant, and reaching the next step forward. Yet more and more people I’ve spoken to say that they don’t read for non-required reasons anymore, much less write anything that’s not an assignment. On some level, I can understand – there are so many shiny, urgent things taking our time and attention. But I have found writing to be such a balm on the stress nipping away at my sanity, and I wonder if it would do the same for others, if they gave it a chance. So, if you’re reading this, thank you for stopping, for caring, for giving us a bit of your limited energy. I hope to make it worth your while.
Catherine H., First Year Medical Student
If you are reading this, it’s okay to have bad days in life. Those days may feel heavy and endless, but they are also what make the good days ahead so meaningful.
For years, I have walked alongside a family member through their journey with mental illness. There were moments of hope and progress, but also long stretches of uncertainty, exhaustion, and emotional weight. At times, it felt like I was carrying the lives of two people on my shoulders, leaving me drained in ways I didn’t always know how to explain.
But through that journey, I began to understand mental health on a deeper level. I have learned how the nuances of one’s mental well-being affect their day-to-day life and every interaction and connection they have with their surroundings. Most importantly, I have come to realize the importance of having a community and a support system to share and resonate with each other’s experiences. This is why I came to Stethscope, hoping to help build this safe space for my peers at BU and for the broader medical community, where people can share their unique life journeys and potentially find the stories might offer them comfort, recognition, or simply the reminder that they are not alone.
Cerelia L., First Year Medical Student
If you’re reading this, give yourself grace.
I remember the moment I felt my phone buzz in my back pocket, it was the important buzz, the notification that I had been waiting for and dreading for weeks. I stood there frozen under the fluorescent lights of a research lab staring at my screen, looking at an email titled ‘Your Admission Decision’. I was a nervous wreck: I had been anxiously waiting for this news for so long, but at that moment I couldn’t move, I couldn’t bear the possibility of disappointing so many people who supported me and were counting on me. I couldn’t check it yet.
The determination and intensity that got me to that point wasn’t allowing me to bask in the glory of my biggest achievement. I was proud but not satisfied, there was always a next step, something to continue working toward. So many of us have gotten where we are now due to this drive – the stress, the fear of disappointment, the endless anxiety and anticipation to achieve, maintain, and keep going – it feels impossible to let even a piece of that persistence go free.
If you’re reading this, give yourself grace. To give yourself grace is to give yourself trust, freedom, and the power to be who you want to be in this world. Allow yourself to exist outside of your google calendar, your to-do lists, and the endless tasks that will never truly go away. We are all still becoming – still learning how to hold uncertainty, responsibility, and hardship without letting them harden you. In a profession built on precision, grace is the quiet rebellion: choosing compassion not just for our future patients, but for ourselves as we try and stumble and show up again anyway.
Aviva F., First Year Medical Student
Several studies have revealed that medical students, physicians, and healthcare professionals experience mental health symptoms at rates significantly higher than the general population. Stethos[Cope] is a chapter of IfYoureReadingThis designed to help medical students and professionals cope with the unique stressors of medical training and change the narrative of mental health in medicine.
To read more letters and interviews from students, and to learn more about mental health in the medical community, visit the Stethos[Cope] home page.