Forgive us, but we need to take a moment to get corny on main. (That was a pun for the youths–see we’re very online, too.) Your blogging librarian thought that she had graduated in interesting times, simply because she finally finished her undergrad in the middle of of the Great Recession with no marketable skills except the ability to apply to grad school. It seemed daunting at the time, but in the year 2020, of course, it looks like child’s play. There is, as you know, A Lot Going On Out There.
When you decided to become doctors, did you believe this moment would come? At the beginning of your fourth year, did it occur to you that previously reliable national and global institutions would fail you us all spectacularly? This December, were you aware of an emerging novel coronavirus in the Wuhan province? If you did, for the love of Mike, why didn’t you warn the rest of us?
We know now that well over one thousand healthcare works have died of COVID-19. We know that number is only going to go up as you enter your intern years. We know that some of you are headed to known hotspots and Emergency Medicine and Primary Care programs. And your library is so, so proud of you.
Nothing would give us more pleasure than to say something deep and moving and encouraging, pearls of wisdom to take with you. But we are librarians, not doctors, and while some of our graduation wisdom probably overlaps (wear sensible shoes), a lot of it is irrelevant to you (avoid rare book catalogers at all costs). So we’ve collected some of the best pieces of graduation advice…
From the professional, activist physician:
Although today we are celebrating your new role as physicians, I would like to confer a few additional titles on you: public health advocate, health communicator and data translator. These titles are non-transferrable and will not expire throughout your career. I confer them on you along with a few asks that come along with these roles…Be uncompromising when it comes to advocating for the health of the population, particularly its most vulnerable, but be flexible when it comes to meeting people where they are. I ask that your public-facing words be driven by nothing less than the necessity of contributing meaningfully to knowledge, understanding and better health for all.
-Esther Choo, MD, MPH, founder of Equity Quotient and #GetMePPE
From the exasperated public servant having real conversations:
This will pass. Take it seriously. It is here…More cases are coming. If you ignore this problem, the worst thing that could happen is that your mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, aunts, uncles could die.
Be responsible. If you don’t, then screw you.
Warmest regards.
-Mayor Gabe Brown (Walton, KY)
From the Icon:
Even though there may not be pomp because of our circumstances, never has a graduating class been called to step into the future with more purpose, vision, passion, and energy and hope. I wish I could tell you the path forward, I do. There is so much uncertainty. In truth, there always has been. What I do know is that the same guts and imagination that got you to this moment, all those things are the very things that are going to sustain you through whatever is coming. It’s vital that you learn, and we all learn, to be at peace with the discomfort of stepping into the unknown.
-Oprah Winfrey
The Showman:
Listen to Oprah. About everything.
-Hugh Jackman
The Space Cowboy:
Live in a way now where you can look back later and say ‘I think I handled that pretty well. Congratulations, self.’
-Matthew McConaughey
The Local Boy:
This pandemic has shaken up the status quo and laid bare a lot of our country’s deep-seated problems, from massive economic inequality to ongoing racial disparities to a lack of basic health care who need it. It’s woken a lot of people up to the fact that the old ways of doing things just don’t work; that it doesn’t matter how much money you make if everyone around you is hungry and sick; and that our society and our democracy only work when we think not just about ourselves, but about each other.
-President Barack Obama, b. 4 August 1961 at the Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children
Be safe and wear sunscreen.
Love,
The JABSOM Health Science Library
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