Hello my beautiful and colorful people, it’s been a while, but I’m back! As some of you may know, I spent part of my summer abroad in Europe, and since then my life has completely changed. This post is long overdue, but I credit that to the learning process in its entirety.
So back in January I applied for a fellowship with the Atlantis Project (AP), and later found out I was accepted. A little bit about AP, this fellowship is a program specifically catered towards premed students, and gives students an opportunity to not only travel, and live abroad for an extended period of time, but also gain an understanding for new cultures, and the healthcare systems worldwide. The objective and mission of the program is to expose students to a wholistic view of medicine, and allow them to shadow doctors in their specific specialities, in hopes that it will ignite an already burning fire in fellows in their pursuit towards medicine. Most, if not all premed students from the US know how difficult it can be to step into an O.R. (Operating Room) without any credentials/licensing in the states. The Atlantis program paved a way for that shadowing experience to be a little bit more tangible. The program was indeed a little pricey, and yes there are other premed programs out there that you can attend for free (by all means go for the free, do what you have to do), but I don’t regret anything spent because my experience was absolutely amazing.
As an Atlantis fellow I was able to shadow physicians, ask questions, and gain an enormous amount of insight, and intellect working with such extraordinary individuals. My fellowship was located in Lisboa, Portugal, and I stayed there for a total of 4 weeks. Initially I was skeptical about the program; it just came out of nowhere. Like literally I learned about it via Instagram and Facebook. Later on after meeting other fellows, I found out that the AP team actually traveled to some of their schools and hosted presentations, which even though I had already been in the program for about a week, hearing their stories put me at more ease. I had a different rotation for each week I was there. Week one I had Internal Medicine, week two General Surgery, week three Pediatric Medicine, and week four Pathological Anatomy. There were plenty of other specialties offered as well. Some fellows had Maxilo-facial surgery, some had anesthesiology, some had orthopedic surgery, others had dermatology and neurology, the list goes on and on. The point is we were exposed to a whole new world of medicine and our future careers..
Although my trip was indeed educational, it was mostly rejuvenating. I went to Portugal expecting nothing, partially because I didn’t know what to expect. I was nervous because prior to my fellowship, I had never traveled abroad alone, let alone for an extended period of time. It was quite exhilarating, but the lessons learned are what made my outlook on life change. Inauja mentioned it before in her travel blog about how traveling brings out the best in you. Going overseas did just that; my travels allowed me to see and embrace how freeing life can actually be. Sometimes, in fact often times I feel trapped in my own body. I feel like my conditioning has stripped me of how it truly and honestly feels to be carefree. We preach self care, and how to thrive in life, but are we really thriving? For example, as I worked alongside physicians in my shadow hospitals, one of the residents would tell me how vacations are mandatory. She complained about how Americans work too hard and too much. I wanted to be offended, but I couldn’t be, because its true. Just the other day I almost had an anxiety attack because I was afraid to call into work sick! Other things I learned was that life truly is a piece of art. Whether the painting is black, or filled with color; whether the song is happy or sad, the freedom artwork has to express feelings is unmatched. Nearing the end of my trip, I sat with a few fellows and we talked about what we learned throughout our overall experience, and this is what was said:
Words from The Crew:
Tija – “I learned patience, with the program and the doctors, because its hard being ignored, and talked around, and not taught. Which happened a lot with certain doctors depending upon the department. But from the experience I learned how to teach myself. I had to do my own research to find out what I needed to. From this experience I took away that everyone cannot be helped.”
Alana – “This trip reinforced the person that I already became in college. I’ve become the kind of person to do what I want, when I want, feel how I need to feel, when I need to feel it. My sense of self has been strengthened. I learned from our crew, you all have different characters, and taught me more about human interaction. Seeing a dynamic with so many different people was interesting. Cosmetic surgery is right now where I see my career heading, because its not a situation where its life or death. Take a triage for example, I cannot let go of one life, I cannot live with myself, if I had to choose between saving one, or saving many. Cosmetic surgery although still dangerous, is safe. And my heart can take safe.”
Kian – “I learned independence and patience. I will definitely take back the fact that we don’t know what our future holds. In specific surgeries where patients had chronic illnesses and a due date for life expectancy to be over was a bit crucial to my understanding of what it means to live. I’ve learned about life, and about friendship. I am taking away, that you’re not guaranteed tomorrow.”
Neesha – “Definitely learned about patience, and how not to move at the pace of others. I learned to let things go, and that people are who they are. I most certainly learned that ignoring bad energy is a benefit to myself! I used to be a negative person and latch on to negative energy’s, but not after this trip. I am taking away things aren’t going to be perfect and you can either let them defeat you, or you can be strong.”
(Left: Alana, Right: Neesh)
Alondra – “I’ve learned english for sure! (She’s from Puerto Rico y’all, and speaks spanglish/ebonics for puerto ricans) I am taking away thoughts about patients who have very little likelihood of living. Personally, I love being in control and fixing things, so it hurts to know that we can’t save everyone. I most likely will not be a surgeon, because I cannot control death. That one loss will always stand out, and you’ll never want to lose a life ever again.”
I learned how to live. Portugal is such a beautiful city, but what made my experience beautiful was meeting and seeing people young and old go about life in such a way that they did not worry about tomorrow. I can say that in Portugal I actually forgot about time; for once I didn’t worry about how long it was going to take for me to actually achieve my goals. Instead I started living them. I took those four weeks to literally focus on enhancing my own personal life in every way possible. I went out, and ENJOYED myself. I took pictures on the beach, I sang out loud, I made some amazing friends, I talked to strangers, I let strangers into my life, and instead of me being a dull light in their’s, they helped me to shine brighter. I say all of this to say that Portugal was a step I needed to make in order to truly emerge into my womanhood. I miss Lisbon dearly, and I plan to go back very soon.
If any of you are in need of something, but you don’t yet know exactly what that something is, start planning a trip. Choose a place, save your coins, get a passport if you don’t have one and GO! Don’t be scared to do things by yourself either. Fear of doing things alone often holds us back from a lot of growth and various blessings. So go out there and explore, the world and new places might teach you some things. Because Portugal taught me the beauty in REVAMPING my life, made me REFOCUS, and encouraged me to REDIRECT my mind.
As always, Let it be easy, and stay blessed! Scroll down for more pics!!!
-Dom
The Kindred Queens 
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