Episode 24: Jonathan Wong

February 12, 2025

INTERVIEW BY PRIYANKA GERA

Edited by Amar Gopal

Where did you grow up?
So, I'm from Long Island, specifically Great Neck, which is basically almost Queens because it's only about 10 minutes from the border.

When did you move to Great Neck?
I was originally born in Forest Hills, but then I moved to Great Neck when I was about five, and I’ve lived there ever since.

Do you have a favorite restaurant there? A go-to spot?
We used to go to Harvest Buffet a lot, but that closed down. There was this really good Italian restaurant in New Hyde Park, about 15 minutes away. Then they changed management too. It was called Luigi’s or something, and yeah, easily some of the best food. They just did a great job with it. It was amazing.

Was it one of those family-run spots that had been around forever, or was it more modern?
I'm sure there are a lot of Luigi’s, but this one has been there forever. We only found out about it maybe 10 years ago, but it was great. I only went like two or three times, but every time was incredible. Any shape of pasta you wanted, with any kind of sausage, ravioli, etc.

If you could only eat one type of food for the rest of your life, would it be Italian?
No, no. It would have to be Mexican food. I could do Chipotle every single week.

So we’re talking Tex-Mex, not authentic Mexican food?
Yes, fake Mexican food, that’s the go-to [both laugh].

Do you actually have a high spice tolerance, or do you just like the flavor?
Honestly, not really, but I think over time, if you eat enough Cholula, Sriracha, Tabasco you get accustomed. And there are different types of spices, right… There’s the spice that hurts you and the spice that enhances the flavor. The latter is always preferred.

Shifting gears—did you take any gap years before med school?
Yeah, I graduated from University of Michigan in three years, and then the year I was applying, I worked at CityMD.

What was that experience like? Any memorable stories?
Honestly, I had a whole Google Doc of funny things I saw, and I titled it Reasons Not to Work at CityMD—as a reminder of what a disaster urgent care can be. But overall, it was a great time. I had a lot of fun with my coworkers. You really bond with the people you work with, and I learned a lot.

Are you the first doctor in your family?
First to go to med school in the States, yes. But overall, no. My grandmother was already a physician back in her hometown in China. She worked at her local hospital, and when she came here, she had her own private clinic. It was sort of for gynecological issues—women in Chinatown would come to her office for treatment. She did that for about 15 years until she retired in 2016 or so.

What was your path like towards deciding on medicine?
Originally, I was a biomolecular sciences major, which is kind of like biochem light at Michigan. You mix and match courses and come up with your own major. But my original dream was to be a patent lawyer. Then I realized, oh, this degree is actually the wrong degree. You need to do biochemical engineering. At that point, I was like, honestly, law doesn’t even sound that appealing anymore. I was already going for a biomolecular sciences degree, so I thought, eh, I already have all the courses—why not just go for it?

So your path to medicine was kind of an accident?
Yeah, exactly. Because I was already studying sciences, so it was like—it's decently interesting, you know? And the thing that surprised me most was how little math there actually is, which suited me even more. I was intimidated by all the math in basic science, but then you come here, and it’s just basic addition and subtraction!

If you lived in an alternate universe and weren’t in medicine, what would your profession be?
If I could be anything? Soccer player—because I'm obsessed with that sport. But a more realistic answer? I’d probably be a teacher.

What subject would you teach?
I was super into history in high school. Sciences would be cool, but I don’t think I’m passionate or good enough at the lower sciences to actually be able to answer any question up and down. I could spew and recite a lot of memorized facts from years of just grinding that information, but I’d rather be really passionate about a subject.

Give me a random history fact that’s stuck with you. Something obscure that most people wouldn’t know.
Oh—Molly Pitcher’s real name was Mary Ludwig Hayes.

[Laughs] Why do you know that?
In seventh grade, my U.S. history teacher would give out these purple stickers to whoever got the highest score on a test. He’d throw in a ton of bonus questions, so you just had to memorize all these extra facts. I just had a knack for remembering them. I was so confident that fact would be on the test, and it was.

What’s the last book you read?
It was called The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Super cool book. It’s about how these physicians tried to treat a Hmong girl in California. The traditions of the Hmong people kind of contradicted what the doctors wanted to do—she was having seizures, but they didn’t fully agree with the Western medical treatments. In the end, she ends up dying. But it was really interesting to see how the clash happened and how it played out.

What’s a trend from the past that you wish would make a comeback? Something that’s faded out but you secretly miss.
One trend from the past? Hmm, let me think…

Ooh, old-fashioned fashion. Like from the '50s, '60s, or even older—when people used to wear suits on the street. I feel like we’re so minimalist now. It’s just kind of boring. Modern things all look very sleek, but they also look very similar. Clothes, fashion—food, even. Recipes are shared so much now that everything tastes the same. People have way fewer things than they used to, too. We all have the same phones, the same laptops. Even car designs—look at something like the Cybertruck. It’s a box. It’s so boring.

So you feel like we’ve lost a lot of individuality in design and style?
Yeah. And logos, too. Look at how Google’s logo used to look. Or soccer clubs—club emblems used to be more intricate. Now everything’s just a simple, clean shape.

True. When you look back at your career, what do you want to have accomplished?
This is probably not what this question was intended for, but I want to make a significant impact at a hospital where I get a chair dedicated to me. Or my name on a wall, a plaque somewhere—my name on the door of a room.

It would indicate that I've made a mark on people’s lives.

I think that’s a really cool thing about medicine. Even solving something like a kidney stone—could seem so trivial—but eventually, you accumulate enough patients that they do remember you. You have that lasting relationship. That’s something really meaningful to me.

Let’s take a break from career talk for a second. How long do you think you could go without checking your phone?
Oh, this is too easy. I could honestly lose it tomorrow and be fine. I didn’t have an iPhone until I was 18.

Wait—you went until 18 without a smartphone? How?
Yeah. Until literally the summer before I went to college. It has no impact on me. I don’t have social media like most people.

There are enough distractions out there. Trust me, I go on YouTube rabbit holes like everyone else. But if I had TikTok and Instagram on top of that? Forget about it. I’d never get anything done.

So what was your first phone?
I don’t even remember the name, but it was one of those slide phones with a keyboard under it. My first-ever phone was a flip phone, and that lasted me through middle school. Then, starting in high school, I got the slide phone with the keyboard.

The slide phones were classics. It’s funny how fast they disappeared once the iPhone took over.
Yeah. No, I mean, you look at iPhones now—they’re getting so big, they barely fit in your pockets anymore.

They’re basically the size of my face.
You’re gonna have to fold that thing.

[laughs] They already did that with the Galaxy Note. And people actually bought it.
Yeah, I know. And I think that’s hilarious.

Okay, next question. If you had to wear a warning label, what would it say?
I say what I really feel, and even if I don’t say it, it’s on my face.

That’s just who I am. The way I talk to my friends is the same way I talk to others. Of course, I will maintain professionalism in a formal setting, but I appreciate people who are straightforward and honest, so I just do the same.

What do you do when you need to recharge?
Self-care? Trail runs. Or running in general. Outdoors only—no treadmills.

Why no treadmills?
Honestly, because I’m afraid I’m going to fall. Sometimes you go too fast, and I swear, if you’re going at like 10  and you can’t reach your hands out quick enough or jump to the side, there’s nothing left except to go backward.

If you’re outside and running, if you stop running, you simply stop. There’s no question about it.

Besides running, what else do you do to take care of yourself?
Going out, spending time with family.

I have to watch my sports—soccer, UFC, Michigan football. Michigan anything, really. But definitely football. Yeah, and to a lesser extent, basketball as well. That’s really the core of it.

What’s your worst nightmare? Not just a bad dream, but something that genuinely freaks you out?
Worst nightmare? Definitely falling.

Like, off a building? Or just the sensation of falling?
It was the weirdest nightmare. It was just a perpetual feeling of falling into a hole. I had to wake up and feel my bed around me to stop that feeling. That was the single freakiest nightmare I ever had. I was in free fall.

It didn’t feel like there was anything under me. But even though I knew I was in my bed, and beneath that was the floor, and beneath the floor was the ground, it still felt like I was falling forever.

If you could have a conversation with your younger self, what advice would you give him?
Play a sport. Any sport.

And—you can’t have everything in life.

Life is unfair—not only in the sense that we’re all born different, with certain advantages or disadvantages, whether it be looks, finances, or whatever—but also in how we spend our time.

So, when people say not to compare yourself to others, it’s really about recognizing that you spend your time differently. And that’s okay. 

Med school really put that into perspective for me. We only have a finite amount of time outside of studying. And when that time is limited, you start noticing the difference in how people choose to spend it. It made me more aware of that.

Those would be my two big pieces of advice: don’t compare yourself to others, and just be comfortable with yourself.

You’re an only child, right? What was that like growing up?
I never really felt like I was an only child because my cousins lived so close. They basically became my siblings. They were over so often, and I was over at their place so often that, as a result, we became super close.Not only do I have two direct first cousins, but I also have an older half-cousin, so there was always stuff going on. 

I kept busy. I played piano initially and then started alto sax in fifth grade. Outside of that, it was a lot of school. But between that and spending time with family, I was always occupied.

Okay, final question. What advice would you give to incoming M1s?
Honestly—it’s not that serious until you treat patients. So just enjoy it, because it’s not going to last.

There’s a lot to learn, but it’s an exciting experience. There are a lot of words to describe medicine, but boring is not one of them.

Contact Jonathan at jwong4@student.nymc.edu.

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