Paola Yee
Final Statement
June 14,12
Out of Your Comfort Zone
If someone would ask me before I started my internship what was it about? I would probably say that it was a way for teachers to rest and forget about us, and a waste of time. Honestly I didn’t want to go on internships, perhaps because I was nervous of knowing what the real world was about, or maybe because I thought I wasn’t quite ready. The first day came, I was during break sitting on the office working on my first journal, hoping for the month to pass by as quick as possible. But when the second day came my perspective changed completely. Know I go back and think about that experience and the only thing I can say is that Internships were the best part of junior year. I learned so many things in both High Tech Middle and at the Plastic Surgery Clinic. When my Internship in Tijuana was approved I was really exited because I was going to have an opportunity that most people weren’t going to have. Then bad news came, I was not going to be able to do it in Tijuana because it counted as independent studies so from one moment to another all my excitement fell to the ground. I was angry so I decided to talk to Lisa and Lillian about it to see if we came up with an arrangement, which we did. Lisa told me that the only way would be if I had one other internship here in San Diego somewhere interacting with people, since being a doctor involves working with people. Luckily Lisa Davis found me an internship at High Tech Middle so I was actually able to go to the surgery clinic. Once again I was exited. The first day came and as I said before I couldn’t wait for it to end. I was really nervous when faced in front of a classroom full of seventh graders; to be honest I was intimidated. The thing that made me be more confident about myself was that my mentor Kyle Linnik was really nice to me and told the students that he was expecting them to respect me. Then once I got to know them everything changed, now I was able to be around and talk to them without thinking it twice. The first day I arrived to the clinic, Dr. Buenrostro greeted me with a smile, I introduced myself and he introduced me with everyone. He said how happy he was of having me there as an intern. He told me that for that month I was going to be like the queen, I had the choice to do whatever I wanted as long as it was something beneficial for me. He told me that surgeries start at 5:00am that being there would be a great way for me to learn about medicine but he said that I was not obligated to be there at that time. The next day came I was there ten minutes early with my appropriate clothing on and ready to learn. When the doctor arrived he saw me and he was really impressed that I actually came to watch. He introduced me with his college the anesthesiologist Dr. Granados. He taught me many things. Days went by and I kept going at 5:00 am, suddenly my mentor wanted to talk to me, while walking to his office I was thinking; Did I do something wrong? , But I was wrong he wanted to congratulate me because he noticed that I was a dedicated and intelligent student who made sacrifices and was anxious about learning more. He told me, “ I am going to tell you a quote that you must remember throughout your life, your life starts were your comfort zone ends”. That was a quote that really struck me. What I am taking out from both internships is that indeed your life does start were your comfort zone ends because as I said before to succeed in life you must make some sacrifices and push yourself to be better so you can reach your goals. I learned that the working environment is challenging yet doable. I succeeded in my internship. I can say that because even though I had two internships I was able to get the best out of them. I realized that it is difficult to be patient when you have class full seventh graders doing whatever they want but if you approach them in a nice way they’ll understand what you want them to do and I learned that by watching how Kyle approached them. I consider myself to be ready for senior year and I am anxiously waiting for the day I graduate from college and start facing the real world because I know that I am going to succeed in whatever challenge and difficulties that will be present in my life.
