Why Perseverance Bears Fruit | Interview w/ Shanonology

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Hey, welcome this is Episode five in this episode, I have the pleasure of interviewing Shannon to speak about her medical school perspective. You can find her on Tik Tok and Instagram @shanonology. She has over twenty thousand followers on Instagram where she posts informational reels and pictures about her study and organization methods. If you would like to learn more about her journey and why she chose medicine, keep listening.

Hi, Shannon. It's great to have you here.

Hi, thank you for having me. I'm excited to do this podcast.

Me too. It's great to speak to you outside of Instagram. So where are you from and what year are you in?

I am a medical student, second year in Texas. Oh, that's wonderful. How are you liking Texas?

It's good I grew up here, so I'm OK with the abnormal weather changes we have to having weather.

So, you guys have abnormal weather?

Yeah, like literally it can be sunny in the morning and then raining at night and then it changes every day. So if you if any Texas listeners are out there, they will feel me.

Yeah, I have no Idea I've actually never actually visited Texas, it’s on my lost.

Yeah, there's definitely a lot of good food here.

So it's probably a lot nicer there still, though, than it is in New England. It's like always cold here and summer’s too short.

Oh, no, I feel you I lowkey get seasonal depression, so I definitely cherish the sun when I get it.

So my next question for you is, how do you specifically manage your time as a medical school student and a content creator on both Instagram and Tik Tok?

Great question. I think one of the biggest things is that social media and content creating has to be a hobby of yours. You have to love it. And I see a lot of med students who make Instagram's, but they don't keep up with it or they get too busy and get caught up. And it's most of the time because they feel it as a requirement or a need to do it versus someone who is like you and me, who love making content, who continues to get ideas, inspiration and love talking to our followers. So I think if you want to be thriving in social media, you have to put in the time for it. And if it's something you do a lot like, you should be proud to talk about it. I love talking about my Instagram. And, you know, like it's it's basically it's like a side hustle, you know, because it requires so much work. But if it's something you love and you make time for it.

I completely agree with that. I think if you don't love it, then it definitely kind of turns into a burden on you. And I also know a lot of people that maybe don't respond to everyone, but personally because I love connecting with people on there. I'm like proud to say I responded to almost every single person that has ever reached out to me on there. And I'm sure you feel the same way. Such a great way to connect with people.

Yes, like sometimes I don't reply till a week later, I always start my DMS with I'm really sorry for this late response, but da da da da da.

Me too I have people sitting in there from like three weeks ago and I feel really bad, but I'm telling myself like once my exam is over on Monday, my mock exam, that's it been like two hours just responding to everyone.

Yeah, it's fun though. Like also some tips for if you are a med influencer. The voice button for DM's is also great to use if you don't want to type or pre-written messages, because I've gone to using those and they've been great, like great time savers.

Such good advice. Like that's what I'm looking for on this podcast too. I have a few pre-saved messages that I do forget about sometimes, but they're in my notes and the voice recording button as well. But when I do remember, it's a huge timesaver. Thank you for sharing that. So my next question for you is, what was the one very specific driving factor that motivated you to become a doctor?

So I have always been into science and doing school work, and I think I'm a little bit different because I don't have a defining factor. Like a moment then and you realize, oh, like, I want to be a doctor. And I feel a lot of students may stress over this, that they're doing personal statement like, oh, what was that one defining moment? But for me, I felt it was definitely a journey that started when I was very young and growing up. I never knew that I wanted to be a doctor until college, actually, because I never thought I was smart enough to be a doctor, although I always thought. Yeah, and so you always going to try to you don't want to disappoint yourself or others. So I was always like, oh, maybe I'll do something else. And then it wasn't until college. It was when I realized that I think I do have the potential to make something, make a career out of this. And so for me, it was mostly I just knew that I was very good at school when I was little because like, I grew up disadvantaged. And the only way that I knew I was going to escape like low income and all of that is to do well in school. And then I really like science. And so, you know, health professionals are also a very stable job. That was like my mindset kind of going in. And then I just kind of figured out through volunteering and shadowing, like this may be a career for me. And that goes with any job or any career you want. You need to have some sort of exposure in that field before you can be like, this is what I'm going to do. And by doing that, you're going to save yourself the regret later on. So I feel like that was kind of like my my journey.

I think a lot of us have similar journeys. I know I stressed out a lot writing my essays, and I know I will write stressed out more in the future, writing residency essays when they ask you, like, why? And you're just like sitting there thinking about I don't know why, but like, this is what I've been doing for the past 10 years, what I love. But I don't know how to tell you why I love it. So that's that's really real. And I think it makes our listeners kind of feel like they can relate to that because they must have the same thoughts.

And it's I think it's good to just keep in mind when you feel those thoughts like, oh, this is the reason why and maybe jotted down or like just internalize it so that you remember, because you're telling me to sum up my entire journey and remembering, oh, this one moment is it's really hard. So I'm definitely going to need to do that for residency.

I need to start journaling.
Yes

So my next question for you is, if you are interested in a specialty, which one and why?

OK, so for this one, I've also OK. So in general, I am a very indecisive person and I feel like I have a general idea of what I would like, but I also have a bunch of more dislikes tha likes like I find myself I find myself nit picking at every specialty, like, oh, is this for me or not? And I recently actually talked to some upperclassmen and mentors about this because I feel overwhelmed since all of my other friends, they seem to have a specialty they want to go in and they are all in for it. And so they're tailoring their extracurriculars and everything to match that.

And then I'm here up in the air like, oh, it can go either way. And I don't want to commit. But know, the people that I've talked to all said that it's OK, don't rush. You're only a second year. And so that's the only thing that stressing out a little bit about. But no, that's it's just something I have to wait. Yeah. I feel like right now I am open to. I think the number one on my list is internal medicine just because it's so broad. But I won't know until rotations, to be honest.

Yeah, we have such little time in medical school like your first-year you’re so busy studying, and if you get to join a few clubs that’s great. But, personally, I didn't join any clubs. It’s hard to balance out all those stuff with such a limited amount of time. Where you have to figure out what you like, do the extracurriculars, you kinda probably have to probably do everything you can handle. Hopefully rotations, that’s usually when people figure it out.

Yeah, so hopefully it just comes to me.

We’re on the same page.

So my last question for you is, what is one very specific piece of advice that you would want to leave our listeners with today? It could be medicine related or completely unrelated. But, some piece of advice that has made a significant positive contribution on your life.

So I think the biggest advice that I can give to anybody in life and in your career is that hard work beats talent. So even if you are hesitant not to go into medicine or pursuing something, even if you have to work harder than most people you will get there. And what I find is that people get really discouraged is like when people dont do anything but they’re just able to do it better than me. And, I’m working so hard to do the same thing as they are, but its something that you have to accept is that you’re not them, you’re never gonna be them, and you weren’t born with those type of skillsets. But, if that’s something you want to do, you need to work hard for it. Because working hard can beat talent up to a certain point. And so everybody that is worried about if I’m good enough to go into medicine, I always ask them first are you willing to put in the work for it? Because like I’m just not the smartest person, but I’m still here and that should be a sign that you are capable just as much.

That is honestly such amazing advice, making me feel. Thank you for sharing that.

Yeah no problem, I just feel like I don’t want people to get discouraged, or compare themselves when you know you just need to have focus over your own life. Because your life is different from other peoples.

And honestly, something I’ve learned as well is everything requires alot of hard work. It’s not just medicine, you can pick any career and you want to make it and be amazing and really good at it. People look at business like business is so easy, like you just put a few Ads up, and make a ton of money. And the social media content creation, like you, get a little bit of it of that business aspect and it’s really hard, It takes just as many hours, and instead of studying you’re working on a business, and it’s really freakin hard.

I completely hard, I’m going to out myself. Before I even got into social media and I saw YouTubers are full-time YouTubers I guess like, I guess it could be a full-time job. Now, I’m like it is a full-time job.

It’s so hard. People need to remember you need to work hard no matter what you do.

Thank you for sharing that.

Thank you for having me.

It was amazing having you here. If you guys enjoyed listening make sure you follow Shanon @shanonology on Instagram and Tik Tok you won’t be disappointed. She puts out alot of value out there every single week.

Thank you, and if you haven’t subscribed to MedKinza make sure you do and tune into her podcast.

And if you guys have time and have learned any little one thing from this show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a rating and review. It means a lot to me and I read them all. Thank you for listening.

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