KAITLYN ROURKE
University of Ottawa, Sept. 13, 2016. “I’m in biomedical sciences. Second year of a four-year program. I’m pretty excited about going back to school because I like learning and I find my courses are really interesting. It’s mostly sciences … organic chemistry, ecology. Next semester I have genetics and biochemistry, so it’s sort of like the science of the human body. And there are some math courses to help you analyze stats. In the summer, I don’t really like just sitting around not doing anything.
“I’m from here, from Ottawa. I still live at home.
“I feel a lot of pressure, though,
because in my program everyone wants to go into med school, so I feel like I need to stand out, feel like I need to even compete against my friends sometimes, because they’re in my program, too. And I don’t like doing that. But you do what you have to do to survive, right? And I want to go to med school. I really do. Anywhere that will accept me, because you can’t be picky.
“I’ve always wanted to be a doctor, since I was little. My mom is a doctor and all my grandparents are doctors, and, like, their great-grandparents. And my uncle — my mom’s brother — is a doctor. So from the time I was little I assumed I was going to be a doctor. I never really thought of anything else, not seriously. Sometimes I thought, ‘Oh, maybe I want to be an engineer, like my dad.’ But no, being a doctor is more interesting to me.
“I also like running. I like being really fit. I like running not to lose weight or anything, but I want to beat my time. I like just being strong. I’m pretty competitive. I don’t mind competing against everyone else who’s not my friend. I don’t mind that. But at board games, even with my friends, I get all pouty if I lose. I try to control it, because now I realize that I do it, and I don’t want to seem like a sore loser. But yeah, I am. In Scrabble, my friends will be putting random words in, and I’m calculating putting my word where there’s a triple-word score. Or if there’s a triple-letter score, I’ll spend 15 minutes on my turn, trying to put my Z there. If it’s possible to be competitive, I probably will be. I’m that kind of person.”