Graduation: Finally Adding "MD" After Your Name

In her second post to the blog, as the day of graduation approaches, medical student Jenny Rowland ruminates on when she will officially be a "doctor" and her journey to adding "MD" after her name.

The Moment of Graduation

Jenny Rowland

My six-year-old just asked me, “Mom- when do you get to be a doctor?”  I paused to think about her question.  Do I tell her tomorrow - the day I graduate from medical school and can write MD after my name?  Do I tell her six years – the time it will take me to finish intern year, radiology residency, and a fellowship?  Or, do I tell her whenever I feel competent enough- and who knows when that day will be?  I told her “July”- one and a half months from now when I start intern year- and she said, “oh- that’ll take forever.”  If she only knew.

I’ve been thinking a lot more about my daughter’s question regarding how long it takes to become a doctor- especially her comment about it taking “forever.”  As I look back on my last four years, there are certainly moments that felt like they would never end - like standing and retracting in the OR while seven months pregnant.  There are moments I wanted to end before they’d even begun - like taking Step 1- or Step 2 – or any Shelf exam, for that matter.  Then there are the timeless moments – the ones I will embrace and carry with me “forever” - like when I hid in a bathroom stall crying after the first week of med school, thinking I’ll never make it…and a classmate (my best friend) coaxed me back to reality - or at least back to genetics class.   Or, like the time a patient called out for “Jenny” to hold his hand in the OR as soon as his anesthesia wore off- and no one could believe he was referring to me- the med student.  And then there was Match Day- when I got my first choice for residency- there are no words for that moment. 

As I prepare to graduate from Penn Med tomorrow, all of these moments come flooding to my mind, and I feel grateful to have experienced all of them.   I really don’t know if there is a single moment when I will finally feel like a doctor.  But I do know that it won't take forever.  I understand that it will be an on-going process and my experiences at Penn Med have prepared me for all the challenging and rewarding moments still ahead.