LYDIA CHOI

I graduated from Stanford University with a biology degree. I studied piano all 4 years while at Stanford and gave a senior recital at graduation, but went to medical school at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School instead of pursuing graduate studies in music, which I considered strongly. After medical school, I entered residency in general surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in NH. During a research fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NY I married another surgeon and transferred residency to Geisinger Medical Center in Pennsylvania. I will graduate next month and start fellowship in breast oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Music has taught me the importance of daily practice. When I first began taking piano lessons, I didn't like practicing. For several years I only practiced when forced to by my mother, and then only half-heartedly. I was looking forward to the day I could stop taking lessons. A revelation occurred when I went to piano camp the summer I turned 12. Because it was required of us, I reluctantly started to practice 4 hours a day, more than I ever had before. During the hours of practice, I began to appreciate the nuances of the pieces I was learning - how slight differences in the way something was played could make it convey entirely different information. I finally understood that music is a different language altogether, requiring significant effort and study to understand. Although I never became a professional musician, the lesson I learned from practice is that dogged persistence is essential to achieving goals. It has helped me get through times when I didn't want to study, when I didn't want to get up in the middle of the night or slog through another day of work as a resident. Practice has taught me that just showing up and putting in time can change you, step by step, imperceptibly, into a better, stronger person.