How do you manage to stay balanced and healthy in spite of the busy med school schedule? 

I’ve found that the best way to stay balanced is to make sure to take time for myself. Sometimes this means a long run, phone call, or weekend trip away from Chapel Hill, but sometimes it is as simple as a doing nothing on a busy day. This helps me to put med school into perspective and not take myself too seriously. It’s important to see the “big picture” and remember that the rest of the world is not on a 2 week schedule.

What’s the most important piece of advice you would give to an incoming MS1?

You’ll be a better student, friend, and person in general if you don’t reduce yourself to only being a medical school student.

What is your favorite artery, organ, or nerve; and why? 

Well, I’d be lying if I didn’t say the uterus. Unfortunately I can’t live down saying that I just “fell in love with the uterus.”

Tell us one of your favorite memories from your first year of med school in the form of a haiku!

Not a few students
Are merry, dancing, groovy
Seventies Party

If you could be any element on the periodic table which would you be and why?

Well, I was NEON for Halloween, yes, really. We had all of the “Noble Gases” covered.

If you had a theme song that played every time you entered a room, what would it be?

Sometimes You Gotta Dance (Dixie Chicks)

If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Pizza. Even after making it for a job I still can’t get enough (good) pizza.

Give us your favorite first year “one-liner”.

It’s hard to beat “P is for Pass” but “C6, 7, 8, put your arm around your date” became an instant classic since it was Dr. K’s first mnemonic.