Ask Iya

Have you ever wondered why people are so afraid to talk about the things that make them nervous in medicine? I’ve never understood the need to “gatekeep” our fears. Our fears are the very thing that propel us forward. A healthy fear has always kept me going. Fear helps me see the way forward, towards my goals in medicine. 

Historically, medicine has relied on a systematic hierarchy that depends on othering patients, trainees, and colleagues throughout training. The latest generation of doctors is chronically sharing their lives online, myself included. I desperately hope that through us, people start to recognize how openness can be a pillar of strength in medicine.

This desire to normalize these fears, coupled with the fact that I am a big sister through and through, led to the development of Ask Iya | Your Derm Bestie. I hope that my openness, my desire to help others reach the greatness I know that they are capable of, and my deep desire to make people less alone can serve as a source of support. I also hope that it inspires more honesty and openness in how we approach our careers. 

Allow me to introduce myself: I am a newly matched PGY-1 dermatology resident. It’s something that seems to be the core of my identity at the moment. However, I remain many different things. I am a daughter, a philanthropist, a model, a bioethicist, a big sister, a girlfriend, a bibliophile, and yes, a doctor. 

Welcome to my new weekly column, Ask Iya. I will be writing throughout what is already promising to be my biggest challenge yet. I have never shied away from hard things, but– here comes the radical honesty– I am scared! What if I am not ready to care for the patient lives I will encounter in T minus two weeks? I can only hope that I will rise to the challenge, the same way I've done so with all of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles I had to get through just to get to this point. 

As I embark on my Transitional Year Internship before starting my dermatology residency next year,I will be answering any and all of your questions about the following: how to match into a competitive specialty, how to deal with the seemingly perpetual inability to sit still as a person desiring to become a doctor, fashion (for I am nothing if not a girly girl), and life in general. I can’t promise to have all of the answers! But here is my promise: I will show up even when I am tired. I will be brutally honest in every way that I can be. I'll be authentic in my explanations, and I will share the realities of my fears while I pursue my dreams.

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