DMS Alumni Reflections

So many great stories! I think back most on the time when Joe O'Donnell told me his farmer analogy (one of many essential bits of wisdom from Joe). I had always been a prodigious crammer for exams. Saving up the coursework and reading until the last minute had always worked for me until my second year when my mother was diagnosed with a cancer that ultimately took her life. Between frequent trips home, missed classes, grief for my mother and a highly-developed tendency to procrastinate and cram for exams, my ability to pass my second year seemed in doubt.

I met with Joe many times and he always listened to me vent. He was never in doubt that I would pass, but he said I

need to be more like a farmer:

A farmer does not plow his field, sow his seed and reap his harvest all in one day; he is persistent and does a little bit each day and when the season arrives he reaps his harvest.

Joe told me this when I was ready to hear it, and I took his advice. Of course, I passed my second year but without the support of Joe (and many others at DMS) my life could have fallen apart at that time. Dartmouth treats its students the way good doctors should treat their patients.

Peter Emery, MD, DMS '97