Jayce O’Shields

Here I am, right in the middle of summer break, although two weeks feels like more of a summer pause. After three years of medical school at Trinity College Dublin, recent summer electives, and the most difficult exam I have ever faced, I am relieved to have a moment to reflect on my journey.

I come from humble beginnings as the son of a struggling suburban single mother in Mississippi who spent barefoot summers chasing fireflies in forests of the South Carolina foothills. Early on, I found solace in the structure of school, and I knew success in education could open doors for me. After graduating high school as valedictorian, I studied biology and the humanities at a liberal arts college to feed my myriad curiosities. I had planted a seed of an idea that I would become a doctor, but in hindsight, I may have aimed a bit high a bit too early with no initial offers from medical schools. After college, I taught high school students with a well-known non-profit, and with regrets, I eventually left the classroom to save money waiting tables. I envisioned myself in the Northeast, and after a few months, I loaded a truck and drove myself hundreds of miles to make it happen. When I arrived in Boston, I began my career in healthcare as a medical scribe, but with a wage mostly weighted in experience, I continued working in restaurants. Through several more application cycles, I finally received an interview, but again no offer. After four years of promotions, parallel career moves, and a pandemic in the meantime, I moved to Brooklyn, New York, to pursue a public health degree and decided to apply to medical school one last time. I would send my application abroad, to English-speaking schools in Europe outside the UK, and Trinity College Dublin offered me the chance to pursue what I had been chasing. What an incredible feeling it was sitting at the crossroads of a winding, difficult road behind me and a long, metered uphill opportunity ahead.

Here I am now entering my fourth year, after a summer in oncology and pharmacological research, preparing for core clinical rotations to broaden my knowledge and experience. Compared to most European students, I think I have had quite an atypical journey, but I have battled the same challenges most students face: finding my footing in a new place, making friends, discovering ways to study smarter in a fully-loaded curriculum, and nurturing a balanced lifestyle with a medical student’s schedule. Because of my unique circumstances, including having a tight budget, I have also learned to refine priorities, discipline my own thoughts and behaviors, and remind myself to build important things for free while in this liminal space. For the past ten months, I have been preparing for the infamous USMLE Step 1 exam, and currently a week after taking it, I find myself at peace with whatever results await me, knowing I can face each obstacle ahead as it comes. Even during the most challenging time in my life, I am grateful for so many things. I am living in one of the most interesting cities in Europe, pursuing my dream career, writing poetry, reading interesting books, exercising in the biggest public park in Europe across the street from the most beautiful apartment I have ever lived in, and connecting with friends and family around the globe as I eagerly await the birth of my first niece. I am networking with international experts, conducting exciting research on new medicines, discovering my passions in the field, getting to know diverse people and places, and ultimately building the person I want to be. Looking back, I wasn’t ready earlier in my journey, and I am right where I need to be. If you are reading this, I hope you know that you are too. As they say here in Ireland, “May the road rise to meet you.”