Journal #6
At the risk of sounding cliche, being a writing fellow has pretty much changed the course of my future. Being part of this program has opened up doors to a series of opportunities that have, ultimately, lead me to change my major. That being said, I still want to do the same thing once I graduate- so it’s not that it’s necessarily changed my entire life. Rather, just that through the experiences I’ve had within the program I’ve been able to really identify what I want to obtain from my college education. (Which is be challenged, in case you were wondering).
That’s also not to say that being a writing fellow will only affect me within the nuclear range of my undergraduate education. When I do graduate, I hope (HOPE) that I’ll be able to attend medical school. If (IF) I end up getting in and attending medical school, this probably means that I will, at some point, have to be a doctor. At that very scary point in my life– when I have to stop going to school and actually begin my career path– I can imagine I’ll still be utilizing some of the skills I’ve had to hone while being a writing fellow. For instance, telling someone something they probably really don’t want to hear (you don’t have a thesis), in a very gentle way. Or simply being able to talk and connect with someone before I engage more professionally with them. Both of these skills are very important to doctor-things like bedside manner, and being able to effectively communicate with your patient. And honestly, being able to actually talk with, and form a relationship with patients, is something that not many doctors have- but need. If I continue to work on these skills, which being a writing fellow has already begun to develop, I will continue to develop professional skills for my career path.
There’s also something about the peer-writing fellow dynamic greatly resembles that between a patient and a doctor. I’ve already had someone sit down with me and say “So, tell me how bad it is.”, as if I was their doctor trying to gently break bad news about their health. Only in this case, it was a missing thesis and lackluster parenthetical citations. The idea that I am someone who knows what’s wrong and should know how to fix it (but at the moment of knowing something is wrong, might not know exactly how to fix it), is really a dynamic I plan to be in for the majority of my life. Navigating this social context through being a writing fellow has helped me come to terms with that idea. And while, “Lets look it up together.”, might not work if I’m diagnosis a patient with multiple sclerosis, I know that whatever I do end up saying should be indicative of a collaborative relationship. I don’t think I would have had that realization if I wasn’t part of the writing fellows program.
