You Are of Value

As I sit alone in my room, removed from the routine of medical school -- cut off from the inspiration of my peers and the encouragement of my professors -- I question my ability to succeed. 

How did I make it this far? How I’ll make it through the next couple of months of intensive board studying, let alone the next two years of training, which will undoubtedly look different from the training of year’s past?

To make these thoughts pass, I remind myself of a part of a poem from Arabian Nights: 

Life has two days: one peace, one wariness,

And has two sides: worry and happiness.

Ask him who taunts us with adversity,

Does fate, save those worthy of note, oppress?

Don't you see that the blowing, raging storms

Only the tallest of the trees beset,

And of earth's many green and barren lots,

Only the ones with fruits with stones are hit,

And of the countless stars in heaven's vault

None is eclipsed except the moon and sun?

Things of value become such because they hold the power and strength within them to overpower the storms, the stones and the eclipses.  

You are of value. 

You have the power and the strength. No matter what you are struggling with today – attending patients at a hospital, taking care of a loved one at home, rotations, board studying, courses, maintaining physical and mental health – your struggle and your feelings are valid and shared by those around you. 

The future may be uncertain, and the present may be overwhelming, but your past is a testament to your growth. 

Struggle if you must, but struggle through it. Opportunities and adventures await. 

---

Tavleen Aulakh

Second-Year Osteopathic Medical Student (OMS II)
Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences