Island Med Student

Today I went to the White Coat Ceremony for all of the Fall 2006 matriculating students at Ross University School of Medicine. The Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, attended the ceremony, along with a bunch of other Dominican dignitaries. I actually thought the whole event was pretty nice. I cried at the singing of both the Dominican and American national anthems, as I tend to do. And I was close to tears during the speech of Dr. Jorge Rios, the previous dean of Ross University. Ceremonies are usually not my thing, as they involve so many traditional rituals, but this one was actually pretty nice. I think I mostly enjoyed it because I agreed with the words of Dr. Rios, who extolled the importance of professionalism, compassion, and integrity for physicians.

The ceremony involved walking up to the front of the room, where a faculty member put my white coat on me, and I received a scroll and a pin. What I didn’t expect was for someone in the front to shout out, “I like your website.” I quickly identified the source of the voice, but because I was so surprised, I didn’t immediately recognize that it was coming from Dr. Thomas Shepherd, President of Ross University.

I began talking to him before I realized who he was, and then I looked down and saw his name on a sheet of paper, and felt completely silly for not having known he was the president! So, it turns out that he’s read my website and he encouraged me to keep writing. Dr. Shepherd, if you read this, please accept my apology for not immediately recognizing you! I have the benefit of having abnormal hair, which makes me easily identifiable. And thanks for the kind words! I will definitely keep writing. I’m starting to learn that the next best thing to completely avoiding insanity (not going to medical school in the first place), is to share the insanity with the world.