Looking glass

By Aileen Zhang, medical student, Johns Hopkins Medicine 

In medical school, we explore and transmute ourselves across different specialties as we develop our professional identities and become well-rounded physicians. This journey clarifies our career aspirations and also unveils our strengths, capacity to dream, and our limitations.  

My digital illustration, “Looking glass,” attempts to capture some of the wonder, curiosity, and self-reflection evoked by our clinical training. What does the girl see as she leans toward the mysterious pond? A glimpse an image of her future self, a reflection made by a magical looking glass, to affirm her current efforts and schooling? Perhaps she’s simply excited to see her future? Or maybe she’s struggling to understand herself and wishing for clarity. And ultimately,  this magical looking glass shows only one of the countless paths available to her.  

As medical students rotate on the wards, images of our future selves continue to be challenged and evolve accordingly. Without a magical looking glass available in real life, we rely on  wonder, curiosity, and self-reflection to dream up images of how we want to serve our future patients (and who knows, perhaps the magical looking glass in this artwork belongs to Lewis Carroll and shows a world of nonsensical opposites!) 

Other healthcare professionals further along in their careers might find the subjects of this artwork to be flipped. The subject could be the one donned in scrubs, peering back into a technicolor world of endless decision-making and even naivete. Sometimes, this looking glass might remind us of the potential to dedifferentiate in medicine and to commemorate the journeys that we have made.    

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This piece expresses the views solely of the author. It does not necessarily represent the views of any organization, including Johns Hopkins Medicine.