Coming to Longwood from a small high school, I had to work on interacting with new people. This was especially important when talking to professors about my meet schedule, missing classes, and making friends in classes to have someone to talk to about what I missed in class. I really had to put myself out there to be able to talk to all these new people to help myself keep up with my school work the best I could. From putting myself out there more I realized that it is pretty easy to find people that you have things in common with. This will help me in the future of talking to people at work or when building connections.
I have worked in the same doctors’ office for about four years now. The past almost two years my responsibilities have grown greatly. I have build deeper trust with my coworkers and the doctors. They allow me to handle more things on my own. Whether it is scheduling MRI’s for patients to doing the patient’s note before the doctor comes in. This job has really required me to work on my people skills and patiences. People aren’t always the nicest when they are in pain or angry. Believe it or not working in this environment has taught me it is important to put aside differences and communicate. By working on these skills I have become very close with my coworkers and have better success when interacting with people. All of this will help me go further and be more successful in whatever part of the medical field I chose.
I ran cross country in high school. My high school coach has been a very big role model in my life. Over the summer he strongly encourages me to come to their preseason practices to help motivate the younger runners. I really enjoy doing this because it is better than doing my summer training for Longwood alone. Quite often he has me take out groups of runners and pace them through workouts to help push them. I quickly learned that I had to feel out where the other athletes were to figure out where to push them. If I tried to pace them too fast, it would be more discouraging for them. I really enjoy having to communicate with the younger runners about how they are feeling and other things like what their goals are. I think this has helped me be more sympathetic because just a couple years ago I wish I had had someone to help push me a little harder. I like knowing that I can help influence younger runners. This is great experience for if I ever decide to coach at a high school.