Hello Framily!!

I have been studying for STEP1 - the comprehensive examination for after the pre-clinical phase of med school (before entering “clerkships” aka rotating through different services/specialties in the hospital). It is brutal out here! (iconic opening)

cw: sexual assault

In glorious news, the episode with Vienna dropped!!!! PLEASE listen to it (if you haven’t). The models that I asked her about - the pyramid of violence and the river of prevention - are two of the very significant models in my praxis. I started working in the gender based violence prevention and response space at MIT as a PLEASURE educator under Vienna’s tutelage. As a PLEASURE educator, I got to facilitate conversations about a wide range of topics with a wide range of student groups on campus, from an erotica workshop with the Black Women’s Association to healthy/unhealthy/abusive relationships with athletic teams to, of course, talking about consent in frats (this situation got to the point that a team of us worked together to re-do the frat education situation). We were trying to change culture to be built on love, rather than doom. and to break down the pieces of the pyramid of doom that lead to higher and higher levels of violence. I LOVED this work, I love facilitating, I love community education. I love the land of rainbows and unicorns.

Since starting medical school, I have transitioned to doing more response work, specifically as an advocate for survivors of gender-based violence in the emergency department – mostly as the advocate during Sexual Assault Forensic Exams. The 40 hour sexual & domestic violence response was a lot for me and on top of medical school and I had to take a little time before I was ready to work on call as an advocate (#selfcare?). I started working on call shifts in September. since then, I have worked 400 hours on call & 22 hours in the ED to support survivors. It is different to be at the end of the river, pulling people out, giving them towels, a warm beverage. Asking them what happened, if they want to share. Creating as soft of a landing spot, on the rocks of the river, that I can; so they can feel safe, so they can go home and rest. I love this work, too. 

I am a huuuuge notes girly, if you didn’t know that about me. One of my proudest accomplishments are the two shelves in our mini-library: the one full of all my notes that are still relevant to my life and the one with all my planners since high school. I will be dedicating this newsletter segment [?] to discussing my notes. I will talk about my planners perhaps in this bucket as well but tbd.

I have also been thinking a lot about ways to understand the human body and what happens when things go wrong (obviously, because I have been studying for f*cking step). Everyone has to figure out how to make sense of the immensity that is the Human Machine in their own way and synthesis is hard. I find myself using a note system my middle school math teacher emphasized: a notebook for “notes and problems” and a notebook for “big ideas” ie key information and synthesis. In med school, this looks like a series of notebooks covering every organ system we learned in “health illness and disease”. During this STEP studying period, I have been dragging around 6-11 notebooks on any given day due to the number of notebooks I have accumulated in my quest to understand the human machine. Some of my friends (KT) are more spreadsheet people and have done really good synthesis via spreadsheet. Spreadsheet would be my next level, but I have a hard time getting my brain to fit into the confines of my laptop. Some people also use word docs (I used that for my masters and urban planning classes), others ???

Anyways, I wanted to share some photos of the notes that have come up in my step studying. And one of my other study buddies, Nicole, is also a big physical notebook notetaker. She took STEP today!!! So please enjoy a picture of her notes as well :) 

Nicole and I think that how people study reflects, to some extent, how they understand the world. I am curious what drives people to prefer different methods and if there’s a pattern that governs that. If you are also passionate about notetaking, please email us and let’s chat!! (i am so serious). If you want to see more pictures of my notes, please also let me know (or anything else you want to see in this newsletter). email us! [email protected]

MY DEAREST BROTHER!!!!! JOSHUA C DAVIS!!!!! What is finance?? What is a finance bro?? What was it like to be my little brother?? How do you build a workout?? Joshua tells all in this It has been an incredible joy to watch my brother grow into the compassionate and thoughtful man he is today and I was honored that he agreed to be on the podcast. Both Joshua/Joshy/Josh and our baby bro Landon/shorty are graduating this May and I am the proudest big sister ever. Landon makes a guest appearance in this episode as well 😉

This episode was recorded at the beginning of his senior year in August. It comes out April 30. get excited, tell your framily.

Thank you for listening & take good care,

meg

Zidane and I had a great weekend :) I did a lot of baking (bread & cookies) & we had a few friends over to enjoy our rooftop & delicious foods. The battle with the med school has mostly ended and I think I mostly lost, but my framily keeps me surrounded in love and compassion and for that I am deeply grateful.