Page 14 - 215946_WCMS2Q21_FINAL

Share Your Story
Thanks to COVID-19, Senior Year Was Not at All What I Expected
By Lauren McGee, MD, University of Michigan Medical School, Class of ‘21
Ican remember the exact moment I first learned how serious the pandemic was becoming. In March 2020, I was sitting at my kitchen table in the same spot I had been glued to for over two weeks while studying for Step 2, an exam I was scheduled to take at the end of March. My roommate had just been sent home from a shift in the Emergency Department and had been told not to come back for the rest of the month. Later that day, we entered the first lockdown. I would not take my exam for another three months. I would not see a patient in person for another five. The medical profession can push you to the
limits of your comfort zone, but the next year and a half were much more of a test than the exams we were spending our days studying for.
The fourth year of medical school is regarded as the “prom- ised land” amongst students. You work incredibly hard for three years, with your medical school career culminating in one
joyous, relatively relaxing year of traveling for interviews, growing into your future specialty, and connecting with friends before you scatter across the country. The class of 2021 had to adjust, however, to a very new and unexpected reality. Instead of talking to patients in clinic, we spoke to them through a computer screen in virtual visits. For residency interviews, we put on our
best suits and ties and smiled at our webcams, desper- ately trying to make meaningful connections with programs and peers across the country during interview season. We taught our parents how to use FaceTime. We said goodbye to loved ones over the phone. I have experienced more sadness, anger, and helplessness than I would have ever expected to feel in my last year of medical school.
At the same time, this year has served as a time of reflection, and I have gained an appreciation for the small moments of joy and connection in my life that I don’t think I will ever take for granted again.
This has been the theme of this year for me: Managing expectations in the face of hard reality. I would be lying if I tried to put a positive spin on everything that has happened this past year. Having virtual interviews, Match Day, and graduation were all incredibly anticlimactic. I applied in Urology, a surgical subspecialty that holds Match Day six weeks earlier than the usual Match Day in March. On the morning of February 1st, huddled around my laptop with two close friends and my partner and my immediate family gathered on Zoom, I opened an envelope that told me where I would be learning to practice Urology for the next five years. I burst into tears of joy at receiving my number one choice – Oregon Health & Science University in Portland – while also feeling overwhelming sadness that my family could not be there to hug me. On graduation day, as the first doctor in my family, my parents did not get to see me walk across a stage to receive my diploma. Donning my regalia at home, we had to settle for another Zoom call as I sat on the floor of my apartment with friends, cheering for one another as our names and pictures flashed across the screen for just a few seconds.
14 Washtenaw County Medical Society BULLETIN APRIL/MAY/JUNE 2021