{"id":9154,"date":"2018-01-03T15:31:40","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T20:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/?p=9154"},"modified":"2018-01-03T15:32:33","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T20:32:33","slug":"patrick-tolosky-21-simple-pleasures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/2018\/patrick-tolosky-21-simple-pleasures\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Tolosky ’21: Simple Pleasures"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Patrick Tolosky '21 hiking in the mountains near Sacramento, California.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In our noisy, data-driven culture, Patrick Tolosky remains a philosopher.<\/p>\n

He believes acknowledging our common humanity while helping people stay healthy is a noble cause, which it is the foundation of his interest in medicine. And though his passion for medicine stretches back to his childhood, his interest in philosophy was serendipitous\u2014it occurred during his first year at Bates College when he eschewed the typical science track in favor of the humanities.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst-year seminars at Bates covered random subjects ranging from robots to literature to sociology to advanced virology and were designed to be an introduction to both college and subject areas of interest,\u201d says the first-year Geisel School of Medicine student. \u201cI signed up for what I thought was a sociology class\u2014on the first day I saw Philosophy Department on the syllabus and thought, \u2018I can\u2019t believe I signed up for a philosophy course!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Intrigued by questions without clear answers that arose during the course, Tolosky had \u201ca thousand new questions without answers\u201d by the course\u2019s conclusion. \u201cWe live in a culture obsessed with answers for everything, but I think it\u2019s valuable to ask good questions, especially when answers may be ambiguous,\u201d he says. \u201cThey teach us to draw on fundamental commonalities, bringing together things that appear to be unrelated.\u201d He also believes exploring these questions translates into being able to comfortably talk with patients about issues that don\u2019t have straightforward answers.<\/p>\n

This fits perfectly with his belief in the interdisciplinary nature of life itself, and how empowerment through health and wellbeing has the potential to break the cycle of poverty due to the financial burden of illness, which can continue for generations. Though committed to combating poverty through community activism, he admits there are no easy fixes.<\/p>\n

But he believes being a physician gives him versatility in becoming a healer. \u201cBy walking with patients in myriad ways towards wellbeing, healthcare providers can catalyze the first step toward economic, political, and educational prosperity,\u201d he says. Community-led development and grassroots organizations are essential to creating more equal societies, but are only as effective as their participants are healthy, and this intersection is where he feels he can make a difference.<\/p>\n

Living and working with the Q\u2019eros people while constructing a much-needed community medical clinic in the Andean region of Peru was transformative and inspiring\u2014the child mortality rate in Q\u2019eros is high and the region lacked a health care infrastructure to support the community\u2019s knowledgeable and talented healers.<\/p>\n

Though it was physically challenging to work at that altitude, Tolosky, who is fluent in Spanish, worked alongside community members participating in the construction project and lived with them and their families. In spite of the hardship in their lives, they were kind and welcoming.<\/p>\n

\"I know it may sound cheesy, but I believe the key to happiness in life is simplicity\u2014I\u2019m committed to that, though I don\u2019t always achieve it.\"<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

- Patrick Tolosky<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWhen I think about that experience\u2014of being present with them, listening to their stories, and playing soccer together, it was really intimate. Because our cultures were so different, I had so many questions about their religion and their community, but out of respect I didn\u2019t ask them,\u201d he recalls. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to focus on differences, yet at the same time, when I watched Valerio intentionally dump dirt on top of Dionisio\u2019s head from above during a work day, I laughed just as hard as everyone else. I think the Earth would be a more peaceful and supportive place if we (myself included) focused on such simple but revealing similarities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Building the medical clinic was vitally important, but for Tolosky this tangible connection to his philosophy of healthy communities with a simple lifestyle resonated with him, and he continues drawing inspiration from his time in Q\u2019eros.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever I\u2019m stressed about exams or quizzes, I think about that experience\u2014how they let me into their beautiful way of life\u2014and it\u2019s nourishing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Living simply and being present is something Tolosky is working hard to maintain\u2014he believes jumping from one project to the next without being intentional comes at a personal cost. And philosophy, after all, encourages us to explore what it means to be human and to choose how we want to live our lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it may sound cheesy, but I believe the key to happiness in life is simplicity\u2014I\u2019m committed to that, though I don\u2019t always achieve it,\u201d he says. \u201cAs a medical student, being present makes studying, which is really intense, more enjoyable. Appreciating life\u2019s small pleasures, like a beautiful day or having a good conversation with a friend is nourishing when you aren\u2019t distracted by cultural messages urging you to seek something more exciting or immediately benefitting your career development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tolosky notes ignoring the siren call of doing something other than what you are doing isn\u2019t easy, and it\u2019s something he hasn\u2019t yet mastered\u2014it will likely be a lifelong journey, but he thinks learning to be \u201cin the moment\u201d will make him a better doctor.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you start wishing you were somewhere else, regardless of where you are, you have already lost,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First-year Geisel medical student Patrick Tolosky believes empowerment through health and wellbeing can be an effective avenue toward breaking the cycle of poverty\u2014it\u2019s why he wants to become a physician.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":9156,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[544,847,409,442],"class_list":["post-9154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-news","tag-first-year-student","tag-home-feature","tag-medical-student","tag-student-profile","author-12"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/01\/tolosky-nc1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4r3h1-2nE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9154"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9162,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9154\/revisions\/9162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}