Teamwork
Growing up, we always hear about the importance of teamwork. From a young age, we've been put in groups and joined teams to see how important teamwork is throughout school and sports. For me, the first time I learned the importance of teamwork wa when you're saving someone's life. During my sophomore year of college, I took an emergency medicine course to earn a chance at taking the national Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) exam. At the end of the semester, we had the opportunity to shadow and follow around EMTs for a shift. Having this opportunity showed me how important teamwork is for someone who needs emergency help.
An example of this is when you're sitting in the station, and there is an emergency. The first thing that happens is the 911 operator sends out a message, which comes across intercoms into the station. Once everyone hears it, the team that was called immediately goes to their ambulance. The other coworkers at the station are aware when someone was eating, for example, and help by putting the food away or helping someone grab something on their way out. The ambulance, fire truck, and sometimes a police officer arrive. Whoever gets there first will check out the patient. In one of my experiences, the firetruck got there first, so using their medical knowledge, they started helping the patient as far as they could until we got there. Then there was a transfer of care. As the patient is getting the care they need, the firemen are available to help grab things and assist. Then, once we get to the hospital, there is another transfer of care to the nurse and doctor staff.
Luckily, during my experience, there was never a critical patient whose life was on the line. But in cases where patient care is critical, it is especially important that teamwork between all these systems goes smoothly because, at the end of the day, it's all about saving the patient, and each system depends on the other to function properly.
Strengths and Weakness
Starting college often reveals how easy high school was for most people. Many get stressed because they struggle with studying effectively. I wish I could say I was different, but I also fell into this group. This experience taught me about my educational strengths and weaknesses.
On the positive side, I am very dedicated to my schoolwork and strive to deeply understand the material. I spend hours rewriting my class notes to enhance my comprehension. I enjoy creating concept maps and making my notes visually appealing and easy to follow. However, this also highlights one of my weaknesses: being too detail oriented. I often spend too much time on minor concepts, which can cause me to fall behind or miss larger ideas. This made the transition to college challenging due to the faster pace of learning.
Since starting college, I have been working on this issue and feel that I have made significant improvements.
The biggest lesson I've learned at Indiana University is to avoid comparing myself to others. This has been a significant challenge during my first three years, especially while aiming for a competitive grad school. I often found myself thinking, "Why did that person get an A on the assignment and not me?" This led to questioning everything: should I be doing something else, or should I give up on grad school?
Someone finally told me to stop comparing myself to others because I don't know their path. This was eye-opening and true. Maybe someone did better on an exam because they didn't have to work to put food on the table, or perhaps they spent four times as many hours studying. They might have had more time to study because they didn't have to go home to say goodbye to a family member like I did. The possibilities are endless for why people have different experiences.
Comparing myself to others doesn't benefit my well-being. Everyone studies differently, and our brains work in unique ways. Once I started to embrace this lesson, I became happier and enjoyed learning and being challenged more. This is a principle I want to continue living by and remember whenever I start to compare myself to others. Next semester, I aim to help others learn this lesson as well. We've all compared ourselves to someone else at some point, but we need to develop the confidence to be content with ourselves.