This can’t be real. I walked the stage as a MedEx Student for the last time ever today (yesterday). The Medical Experience Academy has been a part of my life for the past 5 years. Joining as a rising senior in high school in 2019 and not only getting exposed to the field of medicine but also to the amazing people who want to pursue a career in it was something that excited me about coming back. I applied to Tier II in 2021 and didn’t get it because I was down two credits was actually the best thing that could've happened. Although I was super discouraged at first, later that year I decided I was going to take a gap year after undergrad which means that Tier II in the summer after fits way better than it would've if I got accepted in 2021. Reapplying in 2022 and joining a new cohort was overwhelming and nerve-wracking but I made the best of it. I came in liking the idea of a blank slate and made it a goal to meet and make a connection with everyone in my new cohort. Every day I sat with someone different at lunch, organized game nights, and being one of the only returners in the room I made sure everyone knew what MedEx was all about. By the end of the Tier I was extremely humbled to be nominated as the graduation speaker. This meant the world to me as I always thought of myself as someone who isn't of much value. I talked about this transformation in my speech and how every person in that room had a place in growing my self-confidence. From that point on I looked forward to every summer because I knew I would spend it with these amazing souls. I did Tier III in 2023 and here I am on my last day of Tier IV. I feel that MedEx really shaped me as a person as it kept me on track in my pre-med journey and gave me my forever best friends.
To summarize today, we had superlatives and a final debrief in the morning and then graduation at night. For superlatives, I got “MLT get the joke later” which is very accurate.
At graduation, Diasy Lang showed OUT. She was our elected graduation speaker and I couldn’t be more proud of her. Daisy is the most eloquent with her words and just genuinely has the cutest personality ever. She summarized our tier super well and had an amazing takeaway message: “Lift as you rise.” This gives me goosebumps every time I say because it has so much meaning behind those 4 words. Yes everyone wants to rise but what makes it so powerful is how we can lift others too. Ugh, amazing. We had dinner at Coronas after and at that point I still didn’t process how that was my last MedEx graduation ever. Some of my tier-mates from last year even came out to congratulate us. I can’t wait to see how everyone continues to shine in their success!
See you… soon.
