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This episode was produced by James Chua and Ashley Tam, hosted by James Chua, and graphic by Callista Wu and Claire Sun.

Time Stamps:

00:00 Introduction to White Coats & Rice: An APAMSA Podcast

00:23 Introduction to Paul Tominez

02:06 Plant Parenting

06.28 Pharmaceutical Chemistry Major

10:10 Solo Traveling to 5 Countries in 1 Year

13:31 Military Match

16:46 Specialty Exploration and Why General Surgery

25:30 Challenges With Moving and Adjusting to New Places

29:43 Prioritizing Your Joy 

31:48 Hopes For Future Career

34:26 This Or That? Questions

37:42 Advice for Pre-Health and Medical Students

 

Full Transcript:

00:00 Introduction to White Coats & Rice: An APAMSA Podcast

James: Welcome everyone to the seventh episode of the APAMSA podcast. From roundtable discussions of current health topics, to recaps of our panels with distinguished leaders in the healthcare field, to even meeting current student leaders within the organization, this is White Coats and Rice. My name is James Chua, second year medical student at Touro Nevada, and the current fundraising director at APAMSA. I’ll be your host for today.

00:23 Introduction to Paul Tominez

James: For today’s episode, we have Paul Tominez, a fourth year medical student at UCSF School of Medicine and a proud graduate of UC Davis where he received his degree in pharmaceutical chemistry. During his time in APAMSA, he has served as the Region 8 director and now serves as one of the Membership Vice Presidents on the executive board. Originally from the island of Guam, Paul is an Army Health Professions Scholarship Program recipient, and he has recently matched into, well stay tuned for the rest of the episode to find out where. But spoiler, it’s another island. Former collegiate rower and highschool athlete, Paul’s interests include staying on top of his fitness by running and working out. He’s also an avid solo traveler, having a total of five countries under his belt this year. Without further ado, join us as we explore Paul’s incredible journey in medicine, his insights on leadership, and the unique passions that shape his inspiring story. Paul, welcome to the show. How are you doing today?

Paul: I’m doing good James, thanks for having me.

James: Yeah, no, we want to get as many of the executive board members on this podcast just so we have a very, more clear insight on to who you guys are, because you guys are like the leaders, you guys are shaping basically the next generation of APAMSA.

Paul: Yeah, we’re kind of this weird enigma in APAMSA that we have all the directors reaching out to our local chapters that we kind of just work in the background and a lot of people don’t get to meet us in person.

James: Yeah, you guys are pulling all the strings. But before we get on to the interesting questions we have in store for you, I have a couple questions myself. Just so I and our viewers or listeners can get to know each other better.

Paul: Of course.

02:06 Plant Parenting

James: So first, you are a plant dad.

Paul: Yes, I am.

James: Tell me more about that.

Paul: Yeah so I guess I started my collection in medical school, I think it was during my second year. But growing up is actually where I started taking care of plants so growing up on an island. We had this big yard that like was basically ours to do whatever we wanted to. So, my dad would plant a lot of fruit and vegetables. My mom would plant all of her flowers and other more decorative plants. And from like the earliest age I can recall like helping them in the garden in the afternoon. And like I’d get off school, change and then we’d be outside playing with my dogs, planting things, getting things, like harvesting, whatever we had growing that summer. And then in high school, I kind of cleared out this plot of land and we actually like built like, where it was like a farm and we had like a bunch of eggplant, papaya, I think we had cucumbers and maybe like several like pineapple plants and dragon fruit. And my dad was in the army, so he deployed like, I think later that summer, so I was the one mainly taking care of it. And it was actually like pretty relaxing. And I kind of lost touch with that during undergrad. I didn’t have any plants in Davis, but then in medical school, I stopped by Home Depot one day and was kind of just strolling around as one does in Home Depot. And I picked up two plants and then now I have an entire collection sitting by my window. And I think I probably have an addiction but I need some control.

James: Wow. How many plants – what would you say your favorite plant is?

Paul: Oh, I think it was the first one I got. It’s called a Ficus Audrey, but the interesting story behind that is that… So back in Guam, the other name for Ficus Audrey is called the Tatamuna Tree. So Tatamuna are the spirits back home in Guam that kind of like watch over you and you don’t just respect them. So another word is that these are big Banyan trees, the massive ones you see in the movies with all the things hanging down the sides. So I didn’t know that at first, I didn’t know this was the same plant. So now I playfully think that I have a big banyan tree growing in my apartment with spirits that may or may not be there. And it’s been growing really, really well. It was a super easy plant to start off with. And spoiler, unfortunately I’ll have to get rid of all my plants at the end of the year, but shhh. We’ll get to that soon. 

James: Yeah, I’m sure they’ll go to a very good home. It’s also interesting though because, so you grew up to some degree like growing your own fruits and vegetables.

Paul: Yeah, we also had calamansi. My nino had like tangerines in his yard. I remember seeing bananas. Obviously an island we had a lot of coconuts and avocados, mangoes yeah a lot of like very tropical fruits which I took for granted and then coming out to California’s like oh shoot you’ll have the same kind of fruits that we have back home.

James: Yeah no it’s funny because I also so I’m in Vegas a very desert climate environment, um one of the first things that my dad gave to me as a gift was a potted calamansi tree and it was already fruiting right? But like, lo and behold, my roommate, so I kept it indoors. I was told you can keep it in its pot for 5 or so years, and I was like “Perfect, by the time I’m done with medical school, I’ll know where I am for residency,” and than I can put it like, in the ground. But then I kept it inside and then my roommate kinda got mad because he was like, “yo, I think these are kinda toxic to dogs and worried that my dog is going to eat them all.” And I was like, “Oh man.” So I had to move it outside and then within a week it just shriveled up. 

Paul: Oh no, I didn’t know they were toxic to dogs because we have plants back home and I guess I never saw my dogs eat it but.

06.28 Pharmaceutical Chemistry Major

James: I am not studying to be a veterinarian and I cannot speak on how strict of a dog father my roommate is. It’s whatever, but in any case enough about plants I want to talk a little bit more about your medical journey because I think that’s why we’re all here. We want to get to know you know what motivates you and what drove you to become a physician but even before that something when I was reading about your history something that I was really interested in is, you received your degree basically in pharm. How did that translate over to medical school? Were you considering becoming a pharmacist first or something like that?

Paul:  Yeah, so I think I decided my major back in high school. I really liked my chemistry teacher and the class. I took AP Chem and really, really enjoyed the topic. So I kind of knew I wanted to major in chemistry in college. Kind of jumping ahead. So for college at Davis, there’s a general chemistry major, which I applied into, but then I was kind of going through the requirements and it required linear algebra, a bunch more complicated math topics, which I had no interest in taking but they had pharmaceutical chemistry as an option and that aligned a lot better with the pre-med requirement so I went into medical– I went into undergrad knowing that I wanted to be a doctor already so, I switched majors because it was a little bit more easier to integrate the requirements for medical school while also avoiding the death of linear algebra, super extensive quantum physics. And I was able to switch pretty easily because I had a few friends taking those classes and I don’t think I would have survived taking those. 

James: Yeah. No, I can definitely relate. When I went to my undergraduate, the University of San Diego, I received my degree in biology, just general bio, no specific specialty within it. But I remember like, I was doing really well in my chemistry classes. So I thought I was like, “Oh, maybe I should major in like biochemistry instead”. And then, you know, I love chemistry I love organic chemistry too. But when they recommended you have to take inorganic chemistry or these really niche chemistries, I was like, this is… this is not for me. And I also, like on a similar note to your linear algebra, for us, one of the requirements is like AP Cal– or uh, Calculus 1. And so if you’re a Biochem major you have to take Calculus 2. And I was like, I didn’t even need to take AP Calculus– or like Calculus here because I took AP Calculus and that covered it, so I was like “I can’t do anymore man, like physics is gonna be the end of it”.

Paul: I know, because like I didn’t make that change until maybe three quarters of the way into my first year of college, so I was already taking the calculus for engineers and that definitely was like a rough time. I wish I’d made that decision a little bit earlier, but you know, hindsight is 20/20. And then, yeah, I’m glad I kind of switched out of it because I had to take one semester of physical chemistry and took it during the pandemic, and that was a rough time. I’m glad I avoided the subsequent classes that would have followed after that. 

James: Yeah, no, I can only imagine, I can only imagine how difficult that journey may have been, but hey, it got you to UCSF nevertheless, so.

Paul: It did, yes. 

10:10 Solo Traveling to 5 Countries in 1 Year

James: Yeah, but even though– before we talk more about your medical journey I want to talk about your traveling. So we have five countries this year, huh?

Paul: Mhmm, ya, five countries this year.

James: Have all of them been solo?

Paul: Yes, they have, or I guess, technically, they’ve all been solo. One of them, my friend joined along, but he could not continue on with the trip because of some other personal reasons. But for the most part, yeah, they’re all solo. This is my first time traveling solo internationally. And the other few times I’ve been internationals with my family. And it’s been something I’ve been thinking about doing for the longest time, but I was always scared to do it. One, because traveling internationally by yourself, you don’t know what to do if there’s something that goes wrong. How do you ask for help? I was also worried about the language barrier, navigating public transportation, but things actually worked out really really nicely. 

James: So which countries did you end up– places did you end up visiting? 

Paul: Yeah, so I took my first trip in September of this past year. So I went to London first and then I took the Eurostar to Brussels and Belgium and then I went down to Paris and I went up to Amsterdam. I spent about, I think I was gone for 10 days, 10-11 days, and then I recently got back from Montreal, I think I left the day after Thanksgiving. I spent like five or six days there.

James: Yeah. How did you find the time to do that being a third/fourth year in rotations?

Paul: Yeah, I guess one of the nice things about UCSF is that once you submit your ERAS application, your schedule lightens up very nicely. So over the span of September until now I’ve had a very light class schedule. I only had one rotation that I had to do. I’ll be going back to the hospital in a couple weeks. So I was doing quote unquote research during the time. So I was able to do that on the side while also getting to travel internationally. I saved up a lot of credit card points so they would pay for my hotels very nicely. And yeah it was a nice experience. I’m hoping to take a few more trips hopefully before graduation. 

James: Yeah no I really, so since I’m only a second year and I don’t know how truly rigorous rotations are, I’m always like I know Match for us normal folk for us civilians is in March right and so I’m just hoping that when March rolls around it’s like oh from March to May and May is our graduation it’s like alright everyone, let’s go on the vacation that we all talked about for four years. 

Paul: Yeah. Yeah. Even before that too, like if you’re able to get all your rotations done, like just advice for anybody who’s able to do this, if you’re able to pack everything earlier on, let’s say finish and like, I know a lot of my friends are finishing in like December, January. So between February until graduating, they’re traveling the world and staying at home doing whatever they want. So if you have– if your school has the capability to push things a little bit earlier on in your fourth year, definitely I would take that. 

13:31 Military Match

James: Yeah. Well, since we’re already on the topic of medical school and all of that. Let’s just start. What– so I kinda spoiled it just a little bit in the beginning but what field or specialty of medicine are you interested in and why?

Paul: Yeah, so I applied into general surgery this past summer, so once again I am one of the Army HPSP recipients. Our match process is a little bit earlier, we found out our results a couple weeks ago so I matched into general surgery at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.

James: The pink hospital correct?

Paul: Yes, the pink hospital. They currently have a big I guess Christmas tree outside you could see it from like off the cliff.

James: No, it’s funny, so I was actually very interested… So let’s dive more into this. So you mentioned that your dad is in the army, right? Yeah. So did that play a big role into you choosing the Army HPSP? Or did it play a role in you choosing gen surg?

Paul: Oh definitely. Yeah. I guess for the Army specifically, so my grandpa was also in the military. I think he served in the Korean War I want to say. Don’t quote me on that. And then my dad was, served in the Army for I think 33 years. And then a bunch of my cousins are also in the Army, not in the Army, but in the Air Force. And then I went to what’s called a DoDEA school, which is like a school for all military kids and federal workers to have their children go to the same campus. So I was surrounded by a lot of like department of defense people and children. So that was definitely a big influence. And then I guess for me, the financial aspect of it was a big part because being from Guam, you are not considered in-state for anywhere besides University of Hawaii. So the cost of medical school would have been egregiously expensive for me wherever I went. So it kind of helped take off that financial burden of being able to attend medical school. 

James: Gotcha. You know, something that I don’t share with a lot of people, but I now I guess I’m going to share with every person listening, is that so my dad was also in the Army. And so for a brief moment, I was really interested in doing HPSP. But, um, also on that note, since my dad when he was active duty, he was once stationed in Washington in Tacoma. And so that’s actually where I was born. I was born in Madigan. And so I was, yeah. So I always think to myself that even though I’m in M2 right now, that maybe one day like I could sort of circle back and end my story in like Seattle slash Washington, you know, like that’s where I was born and that’s where I want to end my career you know? But we’ll see, we’ll see. 

Paul: Ya, I actually did a rotation up there at Madigan 4 weeks this past summer. They have an excellent general surgery program and they have a couple civilian doctors who work at the hospital. If you’re interested in general surgery, you can definitely work up there. 

16:46 Specialty Exploration and Why General Surgery

James: I’m currently interested in psychiatry, but you know, you know, things, things really could change. And on that, oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because when I was, again, doing my research about you, you know, two years ago on your APAMSA’s bio, it said that you were interested in emergency medicine. So why did you switch from emergency to gen surg?

Paul: So I think during my third year I had so many life crisis of what I wanted to do in medicine. So I came into medical school thinking I wanted to do emergency medicine. That was the only thing I wanted to do. That’s mainly because I did research in emergency medicine during undergrad and during my gap year. I really liked the big, I guess, catchment of patients that you get to see. So it’s a very wide patient population. Everyone ends up being in the emergency room at some point unfortunately, in their life, so you get to see a wide array of presentations. Your ability to come up with different differentials very quickly to provide critical care and a very like adoptions to do that in a very resource limited setting was something that was very attractive to me and also kind of working as like the quarterback to coordinate care for all these patients who are coming into the hospital. So whether they can go home safely whether they need you know be admitted or they need to stay in the emergency room for a couple more hours, maybe a day or so. That was what really drove me to the field, and also the flexibility. So I heard that you can pile your shifts earlier on in the month and then take the last half of the month for you, whether that be traveling, teaching, doing research and so on. But then during my third year, I got more exposed to the different specialties. So I kind of got more interested in internal medicine because I really liked the depth of knowledge that they had for all the different specialties and being able to coordinate care more long term for these patients. And oftentimes when you care for patients in the hospital, like the relationship with them is very intense. So you’re caring for them for a span of 2-3 days to upwards of several weeks. And you get to see them every single day. You get to see them progressing, changing– their clinical status changing, which you don’t necessarily see in emergency medicine, because oftentimes you give them to a consultant or admit them to the hospital for medicine, or they get discharged. You do get to see some repeat patients who come in frequently, but you don’t really get that long-term care that a hospitalist will get. So I kind of got interested in being more like in the hospital, like on the wards through internal medicine. But I still liked the idea of critical care. So I thought of, okay, let’s do a critical care elective or pulmonology elective because I really like– unfortunately really like very sick patients. I like the complexity that they have behind them. And then I finally had my general surgery rotation. It was– I personally, I always felt like surgery could be an option for me. But I had never gotten any exposure to that. So I’m the first one to go to medical school in my family and have any exposure to surgery beforehand. But when I got to the OR I was… “wow, kike this is an incredible environment.” My first exposure was through a pediatric urology elective where, on my very first day being in the OR, the fellow handed me the scalpel, held the skin taut, and allowed me to do the first incision. I was like, this is insane. Like I’ve never held a scalpel before, never had cut anyone before and he was allowing me to do something. So that kind of like stuck with me and throughout the the two weeks of that elective they continued to allow me to do different things they taught me how to suture things closed they taught me how to tie things. One day it was just me and the attending so I was basically just opening for the case with just attending again with limited experience as a medical student, which was a very like incredible like memory that I’ll continue to take with me going forward. And then I had my actual general surgery rotation the week after for two months. So I did four weeks of vascular surgery and then four weeks of acute care surgery. For my time in vascular surgery, I liked it because again, the patients are very critically ill. So a lot of the vascular patients have multiple comorbidities, the cases are very long and complex. I think the longest case I was in was maybe I want to say six or seven hours. And I think that was only planned for like a 45 to hour and a half case. So it ended up just being at one point it was just me and the fellow trying to figure out like what to do. And I was like assisting the fellow in like kind of getting hemostasis and like holding things with like the forceps and cutting things, which was a very good experience. And then a lot of the patients end up going into the ICU. So I kind of got to see that, you get to do surgery but you also still get the care for these critically ill patients as like the primary team. So it kind of combined two interests that I had. And then the following month, so I did acute care surgery, which is basically the consulting service for general surgery. So what that means is that whenever I guess the hospital service needs like a consult from surgery, you’ll call the acute care service. So would that be for like a bowel obstruction or let’s say in the emergency room, they’re admitted for appendicitis or cholecystitis, you call that service in the hospital. And I really liked that service because there’s a lot of running around. So I think at one point, our list ballooned up to like 30 some to 40 some patients. So our patient list was too thick that we couldn’t staple it together. And I really liked the one– again running around. So running between the OR and the floor to check on non-patients. We just had a bunch of cases going on it throughout the day. I felt like the residents allowed me to do a lot. So one, care for the patient and write notes of course, and then also in the OR getting to close, drive the camera for a lot of laparoscopic cases, and then closing of course honestly with just the attending sometimes, which kind of stuck with me as well. And then the very last case of my rotation was an ex-lap and that was the first ex-lap that I had ever seen. And when we’d gone to open the body cavity, the blood was just gushing out of the patient, unfortunately. But that really stuck with me because I got to see how quickly these general surgeons had to think to figure out what’s going on. And while also, again, using their hands to see where the source of bleeding is. And I really liked how quick on their feet they were thinking. Also being able to make a difference in the moment at that time that you don’t necessarily get to see in other specialties. And this emphasis of using your hands thinking critically. Very sick patients continue to stick with me through all of my um through like all the other general surgery rotation that I did. Even in my GYN surgery rotations where they allowed– again allowed me to do a lot of things in the OR continue to stick with me. And ultimately, like it was the teacher I had in the OR that drove me more and more towards that general surgery path. 

James: I can see why you have felt like so inspired to pursue this specific route. I think in my own experiences. So even before, so I mentioned I was interested in psychiatry, but prior to this, I was interested in infectious diseases. And I think that was from all of my mentors throughout my undergraduate and post-grad time. Like they were the ones who like wrote off however many hours I shadowed them in the hospital for applications but when I went with them and learning from them and getting inspired by them, I think that’s what really propels us forward. Especially in our medical journey you know?

Paul: But it truly is. Ultimately, your clerkship year is decided by who you’re working with. You can have a tremendous attending who gets you involved with the cases and teaches you a lot and allows you to do a lot of things. Or you can have the opposite of where you’re basically just shadowing as a medical student, which may not be the most exciting thing in the world. So your teachers, your mentors, your attendings, even your residents will make or break your clinical rotation. 

25:30 Challenges With Moving and Adjusting to New Places

James: Absolutely. But I think medical school has its ups and downs, and so we talked a lot about all of the ups right now and how great your rotations have been. I’m sort of curious about the antithesis of that, like what has been the more challenging part of your medical journey, you know? Like was it in med school? Was it in undergrad?

Paul: Yeah. I think I mean, I’ve struggled a lot throughout my life. I think– so I moved away from Guam at the ripe age of 18. I think I was only 18 for like two weeks before starting undergrad. So I think that was a pretty big struggle trying to figure out how to be an adult, how to manage being a college student, making new friends, building a new support system in a place that was completely unfamiliar without any existing family in like a several hundred mile radius was challenging. So, that first couple of like quarters in undergrad, it was like hard. I wanted to go home almost every single day, I was trying to call my parents every single day. The time difference alone made it hard to be able to make that connection, right? I think towards like halfway through, I was like, “Oh, like this is too much. I’m going to transfer back home and kind of just go back, go to school back in Guam.” But I stuck through it. I was able to find community through my club rowing team. Built a lot of, built a lot of lifelong friends that kind of gave me more balance for, for school. So we had the school side and then I would be working out with my teammates. So that kind of helped keep me cemented at UC Davis and then as the years went on, continued to feel more and more comfortable with being in Davis, you know, buying my own groceries, doing laundry, cleaning and whatever, and then also managing, being a pre-med. And then kind of experience the same, I guess, adjustment in medical school. It wasn’t a big move, so Davis is only what, like an hour and a half from SF, if there’s no traffic. But again, San Francisco is a very different place than Davis. I always joke around that Davis was a nice stepping stone for me, going from an island in the Pacific to California to a small college town, now being in a city of 900,000 people. So I kind of had that same similar adjustment, trying to find like, okay, who do I connect with? How do I manage my medical school? How do I navigate being in a new city? Manage being able to drive in a city, I just got in my car a year ago, so figuring out how to drive in this very cramped city. But I continue to adjust. I think the hardest parts for medical school is that you’re surrounded by such tremendous people, people who’ve done incredible work, both your colleagues, your classmates, the residents, the attendings. Oftentimes you can feel like wow, am I good enough? Am I good enough for this? Am I putting in enough work? But being able to acknowledge that you’ve done the work, you’re here, you made it, like, you’re going to be a doctor at the end of the day. And to remind yourself that constantly really does help to kind of manage your expectations. I think being able build like good work-life balance is something that I’m continuing to work on. I think I built it pretty nicely during my first year and a half, but during clerkships, it kind of took the backseat because of how much you’re trying to learn, how long your hours end up being, kind of, I personally tried to prioritize as much learning as I could for clerkships while at the expense of like, you know, like, my personal wellbeing. So now that I’m in my fourth year, I’m trying to rebuild all the hobbies I lost over the last year: solo traveling, taking care of my plans. And hopefully build that, like, routine for residency coming up in the next six months or so.

29:43 Prioritizing Your Joy 

James: I can definitely speak as well on how important it is to maintain, you know, these hobbies that you have, that keep you grounded during medical school. I remember like prior to medical school, I used to go to the gym very regularly, but then when MS1 started I was just like no time for studying– or no time for working out, all time for studying. And I think that was just me being like… I was just not prioritizing what needed to truly be prioritized and that’s, you know, your physical and mental health first. And so now that we’re in our second year, I’m– it’s kind of people say it’s pretty wild. But for me, my personal schedule is that I wake up at 3am to go to the gym but mind you that means I go to bed at like 9 to10. I’m still getting about 6 hours of sleep. But I just like starting off my day with that one thing that like is so routine, you know, because things are so rapidly changing and it’s hard to stay grounded. So yeah, yeah. 

Paul: Yeah. I mean, kind of speaking to that. Yeah. I mean, I used to go to the gym a lot, especially during undergrad and honestly during my first year and a half of medical school, but during clerkships, your schedule is not really your own. So being able to fit in like what brings you joy during that time, like it’s a struggle because you can always study more. You can always try to get more sleep, but you really have to make time for the things that bring you joy, whether that be your hobbies, whether that be working out, whether that’d be like working on your mental health, or even meeting up with your friends because for clerkships everyone’s spread across the city or the Bay Area or wherever you’re going to medical school and it’s hard to talk to people at times. It can feel very isolating especially if you’re the only medical student on your team. So making sure you also maintain the connections you make during the first year and a half. Having people you can rely on to kind of like decompress, talk about what you’ve been experiencing like during your clinical day, can really like change your experience overall. 

31:48 Hopes For Future Career

James: Yeah, absolutely. So now we’ve taken the time to talk about all the highs and your incredible rotations and surgery and how that inspired you. And we talked about the lows and all of the challenges that shaped you into the medical student you are today. I’m now curious what we can expect for the future. So in other words, if we had a crystal ball for you and we were trying to predict your future medical career, what is the one thing you are looking most forward to now that you’re going to be what, an 01? An 01– is that not the term? Like for officers?

Paul: Yea, so I’ll actually be a captain which is an 03. 

James: Oh my god, so you’re skipping a little bit.

Paul: Yeah, so I’m skipping a few!

James: So skipping first and second lieutenant.

Paul: I’m actually a second Lieutenant right now. 

James: Oh, okay. Yeah. For medical school year, you commission as an 01and then once you graduate, you become an 03.

James: Got you. Okay, thank you for the clarification. Well, in any case, what do you look forward to in your future medical career or even military career?

Paul: Yeah. So I kind of touched on this before, but it was all again, my decision to go into surgery was based off the residents and the attending that I had. So I’m really, really looking forward to being able to teach as, as a physician over the past couple of months or even over the past year, I’ve been leading a lot of like, suturing workshops, knot tying. And I’ve also been tutoring for the school of medicine and I’ve really enjoyed my time being able to teach younger medical students like all the knowledge that I’ve gathered over the past several years. So I think at least at Tripler they do an excellent job of trying to emphasize teaching for medical students so I’m looking forward to being in that resident position and being able to have like all these chalk talks and teaching medical students how to like suture and knot tie and all like the different surgical pearls. And then ultimately I would love to continue mentoring like medical students and pre meds and others like people in general who are interested in medicine, because I feel like a lot of wisdom can be passed down through the experience that you live. But everyone’s journey is gonna be different but being able to hear what other people’s journeys were like and what the life lessons they took away from that can really help someone navigate this foggy field of medicine that often for people who don’t have family in medicine itself can be kind of difficult to navigate at times. 

34:26 This Or That? Questions

James: Yeah, absolutely, that intergenerational connection between generations and generations of physicians, it really carries on. And I look forward to the day when you know you’re an attending and APAMSA can call back to you so that you can mentor another bright-eyed future captain. But yeah, in any case, thank you for sharing so much about your medical journey. We’ve really learned so much about your professional side and the academic side, but I wanted to end the podcast more on a lighter note. And I’ve been asking every single person we do this 1-on-1 series with a bunch of this-or-that questions just so we end on a goofier note. It’s just gonna be A or B just choose one, you can give an explanation, but it can be pretty rapid fire. I have actually found that every single person I’ve interviewed has to always pause and then expand upon. So, feel free to do that as well.

Paul: Alright I’ll try to be as rapid fire as possible.

James: I’ll just give it to you then. First, city or beach

Paul: Beach

James: Cats or dogs? 

Paul: Dogs. 

James: Text or call?

Paul: What was that? Sorry, one more time. 

James: Text or call? 

Paul: Text. 

James: Black or white? 

Paul: Black. 

James: Morning or night? 

Paul: Morning.

James: Summer or winter?

Paul: Summer

James: Breakfast or dinner?

Paul: Breakfast

James: Would you rather have the power to be invisible or the power to read minds?

Paul: Be invisible.

James: You know, you’re actually the first person to answer that. 

Paul: Oh, really? I think my anxiety would go off the rails if I could read people minds. 

James: Would you rather have 100,000 to spend on yourself or a million you could only spend on others? 

Paul: A million to spend on others. 

James: We have such kind hearted guests, everyone always says that. And then finally, for our final this or that question, would you rather retake step one or retake?

Paul: I think I’d rather retake the MCAT unfortunately. 

James: Okay, so I’m gonna ask you why. 

Paul: I think I’m the first one who probably said that right? 

James: Yes, that is correct.

Paul: I don’t know, I really like basic sciences. I mean I was a chemistry major so like that wasn’t like an issue for me. Really love biology so biology and biochem. So that was like, fine. The only issue with the CARS section, which I think I could do better if I actually practice CARS. And then the psych-sociology is like, yeah, you just do the flashcards. So yeah. STEP1 was rough for me. 

James: Yeah, I really thought we were gonna have like a 100% unanimous step one answer. Way to break the mold. So that’s wild. Alright, well that brings us to the end of our This or That segment. Thank you for your honesty. 

37:42 Advice for Pre-Health and Medical Students

James: As we wrap up this episode of White Coats and Rice we love to close out our 1-on-1 series seeking advice from our guests. So, Paul, what is one piece of advice you’d like to share with someone navigating the journey of medicine/medical school?

Paul: Yeah, I think making it your own journey is a big one. I think there are so many different ways to be successful in this field and ultimately it will be your own experience in the end. So take all the advice that you get, take all the experiences that you see with a grain of salt. Integrate into your decisions but ultimately make the decision because you want to do it. No one else can make the decision for you or people will try to make the decision for you, but ultimately again, like it’s your career, your life. So building that confidence to be able to navigate this incredible field of medicine with confidence is… It can be challenging at times, but once you start to build the repetition of doing that, life gets a lot easier.

James: Thank you Paul for sharing so much about you. It has really been such an honor to have you on the podcast. Thank you for sharing your incredible journey from the beginnings on the island of Guam to where you’re headed next, to the island of Hawaii. It has been so inspiring. If our listeners want to contact you his current email is membership@apamsa.org feel free to shoot him a question if there’s something you want to learn more about, whether it’s maybe a military health scholarship or anything like that I’m sure he’s an open book. To everyone tuning in we hope you found this conversation as meaningful as we did. Be sure to join us next time for more stories that uplift and connect – we hope to see you all at the National Conference at Duke University this upcoming Mar 7 – 9, 2025. Thank you Paul!

Paul: Thank you for having me!