Episode 8: Naveena Sunkara

December 14, 2017

I don’t really have a hometown. I never knew how to answer that hometown question on AMCAS. Before college, I barely spent 4 years in one place. I moved around everywhere in northern California, but because of that I have a lot of different friends from different phases of my life (shout out to Mayur and middle school).

I think I’ve just grown comfortable with not having a hometown though; I don’t resonate with one particular place. It was really hard feeling like I had to constantly start over as I was growing up. When I went to my new high school, I was like, “I’m not going to make any friends here, because friends are temporary, and everything is transient.” I went through this Sum 41, I’m going to eat lunch by myself, phase... But eventually I was like this is stupid; I’m going to be here for three more years, I might as well make some friends… It was a good decision.

Now, cultivating relationships is what I live for. What do you have if you don’t have people? It’s a ridiculous idea to me that in a world of like 6 billion people you wouldn’t want to get to know the people around you. That’s wild to me; people are so interesting. They all have something to offer.
Like one of my best friends growing up was my grandma; she is this incredibly progressive matriarch in my family; her husband died shortly after her 7th child — she raised her family all by herself. I’ve always looked up to how independent and ahead of her time she is (she has a tattoo!). She has this ability to be extremely funny and laid back, while also being a determined and steadfast person. She does a great job balancing, and I think that’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot with med school. I don’t want to be defined as just a student. One of my cousins started calling me "doctor cousin", but I don’t want to be defined by my profession either. Maybe I don’t want to be defined as any one thing. I want to be able to be recognized as a multifaceted person.

I’m interested in so many things — I met a person last year who knew everything about everything. It made me want to learn everything about everything too. I have a running list on my phone of things to look up later, and when I have free time I just Google them…did you know that dogs could develop PICA?

Still, my main interest is in human rights; I minored in it in college. I did my thesis on a current event that is unfolding in Myanmar. There is a group, the Rohingya, that is at risk for genocide, but no one wants to call it that because it doesn’t have the same hallmarks of historical genocides. After the Holocaust, the UN said never again, but there have been a multitude of genocides since then, and I was always confused and frustrated by that. We’ve done a lot about punishment, but not a lot for prevention.

That’s why medicine is so cool to me; the MD isn’t the end goal — I’m not sure what the nebulous thing I want to do with this degree is, but I think I will most likely delve into humanitarian work. I’ve always felt like a global citizen; I don’t necessarily know where that came from. I see something that’s wrong, and I feel connected to this issue and want to change it. Political intervention is necessary, but it takes forever. As a physician, you’re physically interacting with people in these crises zones. The Rohingya — they have no rights given to them by any formal government, so they’re unprotected in terms of health or safety. It could take years to change something like that, especially for a debate that’s already been going on for many decades. A physician in a humanitarian group can provide health care that the government can’t or doesn’t want to. So even though it’s only solving a small issue within a larger issue, we can make attainable change.

What are your 5 Most Recently Played Artists on Spotify?
Simon and Garfunkel, AC/DC, Ice Cube, Young the Giant, and Porter Robinson

If you could have any superpower, which one would you choose?
It’s not a superpower, but I would want a photographic memory. I think it would be extremely useful and save a lot of strife.

Pick something or someone from NYMC go give out a shout out to!
Mia — thank you for the popcorn, for cakes in a mug, and for being an AWESOME roommate
The meme study group — y’all make studying bearable
Marisella/B — for the belly laughs!

If someone wanted to talk to you, they should lead with…:
“Hey, did you know that…” and then literally follow it up with anything.