Musings and Meditations

I recently came across a letter that I wrote years ago to my "future self." This letter was written in August 2014 on the day of my White Coat Ceremony at Harvard Medical School. I have decided to publish it here as a reminder to myself as I transition to Kia L. Byrd, MD, MPH. Dear Dr. Byrd, It has been four or five years since you've begun this incredible journey of self discovery, trials, tribulations, joy, happiness, anxiety, excitement, and everything in between. I hope that you remember your first couple of days at Harvard Medical School. You were eager to begin this exciting portion of your life, but also apprehensive and uncertain of the future. You often worried, after hearing about the fantastic accomplishments of your classmates, if you had what it took to be a successful student at HMS. At times you felt isolated, overwhelmed, stressed...but after conversations with family and your fellow peers, you knew that eventually you would hit your stride and b

Vacation time. Aaaahhhhhh. As a fourth year medical student, nothing makes me happier than hearing those words. Vacation. Time. Both things that come in limited supply when you’re a med student. As I sit here at my computer, I think about the course of the past year and how far I’ve come as a student-doctor. I completed my third year rotations, a hodgepodge of clinical rotations, evaluations, and shelf-exams (blog coming soon about surviving your third year of medical school). I survived Step 1 (though admittedly, my ability to sit for a prolonged period of time while reading words from a book has forever vanished). I conquered the fourth year sub-internship in medicine. I’ve watched myself grow from a fledgling, a frightened newbie, who at times was even afraid to touch patients, to a competent medical team member operating efficiently at the level of an intern *gives self reassuring pat on the back.* Every once in awhile, HMS decides to bless its students with a break. An opport

(originally written 2/2016) This week has been weird. Like…really weird. Have you ever just looked back on the events of the preceding week and thought, “My, my. What was that?” Not so much as a literal means of devising explanations for the seemingly strange occurrences of the week, but more so as a catalyst for introspection and reflection on the significance (or lack thereof) of said events. As I write this, sitting atop the plush carpeted rug on my bedroom floor, my headphones blasting Earth, Wind, and Fire’s “Love’s Holiday” (rest in peace, Maurice White), I think about the hodgepodge of events that comprised the past seven days: hearing the tiny heartbeat of my first neonatal patient, enduring the incredibly awkward experience of performing my first medical examination on male genitalia, experiencing the daily joys and frustrations of being the prototypical self-sacrificing (and consequently sleep-deprived) medical student. But perhaps the most enlightening and stimulating en

The first year of medical school was easily one of the most difficult academic years of my life...thus far.   And I don’t mean “difficult” in the usual sense. The courses weren’t necessarily too hard. The professors weren’t overly demanding. The exams weren’t excessively complex. The first year of medical school, however, did force me to introspection. To consider what I like to call the “Olivia Pope Questions” of my life. What was my end game? What were my life goals? Ultimately, what did I want? I found myself attempting to juggle—unsuccessfully at times—a full workload, the responsibilities of leadership in several organizations, the sometimes-subtle pains of existing as a minority student at a PWI, the strain and stress of maintaining my interpersonal relationships, and my duties as an aunt, sister, daughter, and friend. Over the course of the year, I realized that in executing The Kia Byrd One Woman Juggling Act , it is impossible to balance everything. My own personal satisfact

The context of the nineteenth century in the United States of America spurred a number of social and political movements and ideologies by African-Americans that responded to the brutal oppression of slavery and sub-citizenship endured during that period. Among northern communities of free Blacks, covert gatherings of southern slaves, meetings of federal government officials, and societies of abolitionists, individuals voiced their thoughts and opinions on potential solutions that could, in their respective interests, address and alleviate the condition of the Negro in America. A number of prospective solutions included the idea of Black emigration and the creation of settlements outside of the United States. In response to the efforts by the American Colonization Society in 1816—efforts to create settlements in Liberia and Sierra Leone for free Blacks—a number of Africans in America gravitated to three major camps regarding the idea of emigration: (1) rejection of colonization in fav