Guest Blog ~ "Bridging Narratives"

Today's guest post is an essay from my 23 year old daughter, a first year medical student at the University of Washington. In addition to rigorous coursework in sciences, anatomy, and clinical training, she had an opportunity to take an elective Thursday nights offered at the home of the physician teaching the class, called "Mind, Body, and Pen." This intimate class, offered to UW Medical students for more than fifteen years, has received rave reviews from other students and she thought the connection between thinking, writing, and medicine was worth exploring - if only because many of her research projects culminate in science journal publications. The first class required a spontaneous "free write" to be read aloud to the group in answer to the question - "What brings you to this class?" Her answer, I feel, is worth sharing with anyone interested in bridging between the creative and the analytical; in connecting the inner and outer worlds we experience.

And so, Kate in her own words~

1/10/13
Growing up with a mother who was a novelist, I spent my free time with her figuring out how to look at the world with a constant inner narrative. Every situation, every line in the grocery store, couple out at dinner, warranted speculation and storytelling. When medicine entered my worldview, specifically, time with patients in the geriatric ward, the two clicked. I had a beautiful language, with it�s own cadence, nuance, slang, at my disposal. With the constant need to narrate ever present � an influx of experiences, memories, small and large moments � I found that writing the words, situations and moments became an integral part of not only how I processed, but how I learned. During the first C-section delivery I scrubbed into (which also happened be my first time around blood, surgery and babies), my mind was bursting with the poetry of the moment. I couldn�t just explain what I had experienced; I needed to write it, to share the moments and the words that had filled my mind. This experience, with perhaps one paragraph added, became my personal statement for medical school, for it so perfectly represented everything that medicine was for me. It said things about me I never realized I believed, pointed out details I had internalized but had not processed. It was a defining moment.

I come to this class with a need to continue this narrative, to once more take it out of my head (too full already with more of this beautiful medical language) and put it to paper, or word processor as it may be. I feel I am constantly seeking a mode for how I want to process my world, humanist that I am. I am so afraid of letting my humanist side show � this inner poetic narrative I have. The effort and energy I put into being one of the medical people, one of the scientists, is what allows me to function in medicine. Language, the power of manipulating it, adding and subtracting, inventing, is what allows me to combine this foreign medical culture with my own culture � my world view of art and narration.

Medicine is the catalyst for shifting that narrative from internal to external, to see my words and feelings go from momentary acts of creative thinking into the realm of honesty. The medical world energizes me, gives me drive and keeps me moving � I am constantly filled with wonder, something I hope to never lose. I want to connect the two narratives, humanist and medical student. To find a way to ultimately integrate the passion and excitement of this journey and the connections I make - between people, ideas, everything covered by that word. Ultimately, I want to understand the nature of the drive medicine gives me; and the nature of the beauty in the good, ugly, the tired, stressed or overwhelming experience.

Thank you, Kate.