Chicago is a great city. There's a lot to do like theater, comedy, and shows. So there's usually always something going on. Prior to the pandemic, I was able to go to the Second City a couple of times. Second City is one of the foremost comedy institutions in the country that produces a lot of the people who end up on SNL. So those are really fun shows to go catch. And then all the different musical venues. we saw Mumford and sons around the holidays. There is always something going on. 

So I had applied to and interviewed at a lot of family medicine, residency programs in Chicago. I was looking for more of a community-based program that had more of a small-town kind of vibe and I found that with McNeil. So there are only a few of those in the Chicago area that are not affiliated with a huge academic center. So it's in Berwyn, Illinois which has a very Hispanic population because we have Cicero right next to us. 

So being able to have that kind of small-town vibe and everyone says I was born at this hospital and I'm coming here for my OB care and want to have their kids there. It's just very cool everyone knows the hospital in the community and they know what family medicine is as well.

We have 12 residents per year which my class just happened to be all women. But like all the women in my class have just been like phenomenal to work with. They're very supportive, just having people that you can like lean on during it's a stressful time during residency. And even like faculty, like we'll go out to lunch after clinic or something. That's been really fun.

Yeah, so COVID has been challenging. Here in Chicago, we were hit really hard, really early on in the pandemic. So I was on our family medicine, inpatient service in March before it hit. Everyone was panicking about like the first wave coming. And there was a lot of confusion about how we were going to treat it and what kind of protective equipment we should be using. They were trying to hold everything back for a little bit trying to conserve PPE.  So it was just a stressful time then. And then I was on emergency medicine in may during the peak of COVID. So that was really distressing to see just the number of patients coming in who were super, super sick and not being able to have their family members at the bedside to help.

Yeah, so I think the biggest thing that like my biggest piece of advice for people is to really value your work-life balance. And to try to keep work at work and home at home, it's hard to get that balance. But that's one of the reasons I chose family medicine is that I wanted to be able to have a flexible schedule and not feel like I was constantly working and have time for other things that are important to me, other hobbies, and being able to spend time with my friends and family. So I think even during residency, it's important to have things those things.

Yeah, I think really just like personal wellness is important for residents or for medical students in residency. So trying to have those habits now of being able to find something, to keep yourself active, and being able to model healthy living to your patients. It's not always easy to do that. But you will feel much better if you find something.