06/11/2025
Carolyn Lara Coles MD
It has been for me like a reminder that Life is an eternal beginning. I was so proud to see you, with the class of 2025, receiving the same little piece of document for which, at different periods of time, we have lost so many nights of sleep, working to do the impossible and capture a dream.
Was it really what happened, or was it really a dream? I have seen you walking up after taking that diploma from your dean and the young girl, my daughter, that I have never seen jumped, almost “dunked“ in the basketball net. I asked myself if she has used some wings to perform such. The Joy in taking your picture has surely made you understand that It was not a dream.
I want you to know that this piece of paper you have earned with all your sweats, can’t be taken off… but you need to nurture that enthusiasm and that eagerness to become the best in what you have chosen to become: a physician in the field of Psychiatry.
You will have as many challenges that we had in the past or perhaps, more. It looks like you are going to fight robots and machines of the future which will challenge your existence, questioning your diagnoses and treatments. At the end, I doubt that your life would ever be different than the one that your Dad has experienced for 52 years.
The Artificial intelligence will challenge all your moves and will try to prove you wrong. These machines that we have created will render our professional life impossible and will place doubt in our mind but they will also sharpen your skills. We have created them and we need to control them and use them at will.
In receiving the diploma, I may have felt that in your jump, part of your mother and part of myself, demonstrated an affirmation or a commitment rendering you, ready to face this world of adversity.
You made your choice and you have even chosen your specialty, while, me as you know, I had doubts and I needed to wait at the end of my internship to be sure that my specialty will suit me. Once chosen, I have never looked backed but I am what I am and nobody in the world can change me. By this way, my patients will place their thrust in me because I will put my knowledge at their service.
Certainly, I will have doubt in my diagnosis, but I will decide in the best of my ability. I may be stubborn but I will have to leave somewhere a place to lay back and ask myself if I were right or wrong and accept failures and victories. After all, we are human-being and we take our strength from that supreme force which renders us invincible.
Being in the field of Psychiatry or in the field of Surgery does not change us in our sacerdoce, we only aspirate to the best outcome for the patient. Best of luck, sweet daughter, remember that I will be always on the side of a telephone or at some miles away from your practice, do not hesitate to call. You are going to start a journey alone, around some friends but it will be always at the end, your patient and yourself in the equation.
Faith and culture are essential in the life of a patient, no matter the specialty. You will discover it even more in the field of Psychiatry and you will have to understand the way one grew up, their habits, their religions. These challenges will surface constantly and you will have to be vigilant. This specialty is dealing with the mind, and the mood, conceptions in different behaviors, will need to take in consideration to understand certain aspects of the pathologies, but at the end, you will have alone to face these challenges. Perceptions and emotions will master your world while modern psychiatry will force you to look for the mind and body connection. You will need to avoid stress and physical illnesses, Carolyn Coles MD
to deal with behavior changes. At the end, you will learn on the different medications in the field of your choice.
Faith and Cultures are strangely connected to each other and linked to religions. I wrote a lot about the search for God in the Newletter of the association (AMHE). I may have found answer that can only suit me but disparity in this country where we live can change different aspects of a life.
Welcome to the Medical World.
Dad.
