EPISODE 24: JASON KREINCES

June 21, 2020

“There may be people who have more talent than you, but there's no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do - and I believe that.” – Derek Jeter

Sports have always been a huge part of my life, a lot of my friendships and life lessons have come through them. Baseball's my favorite. Huge Yankee fan. I’m pretty bummed about not being able to go to Yankee Stadium this summer, but obviously there are bigger things to worry about. I grew up playing basically everything competitively. Basketball. Ice Hockey. I remember my senior year I decided to change it up and play recreational basketball with my younger brother, and my dad and his friend were the coaches. We went 12-0 and won the championship, it's one of my favorite memories.
 
Sports are what got me into medicine. Playing as much as I did, I eventually ran into the injuries. I was a pitcher in baseball and hurt my elbow a lot and hurt my back playing hockey. Thankfully I didn't need any ligament surgery or anything like that but it put me in and out of doctor offices a lot. Getting seen by an orthopedic surgeon was really my first big experience with the medical field. I thought, "wow, this guy is going to get me back to what I love doing." Trusting him allowed me to get healthy and back to playing sports that I loved, and eventually allowed me to help win the state championship for baseball my senior year. Medicine brought me a lot of happiness. I want to give other people that same sense of hope and happiness too.   
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I'm from New York about 30 minutes away from school, but for college I went to Wake Forest in North Carolina. I never really left home before that, so it was an adjustment at first. One of my first weeks at school, there was this scary pre-med info session about the classes freshman should be taking and what upperclassmen should be doing to prepare for applying. It was really overwhelming but I ended up meeting one of my best friends there, so a little silver lining. But I looked up to my older brother. He moved to Toronto for his job and it must have been really hard for him too moving to a different city in a whole new country by himself, but if he persevered through that, I knew I could too. And I really did. I loved it down there.  
 
My older brother and my mom are my two biggest role models, they always remind me not to give up. There was this early action program for Wake's medical school that I applied to when I was a sophomore. I was lucky enough to get an interview my junior year and I felt really good about it, but I didn't get in after that. That would’ve been great to be into a school as a junior, but at that point I had to turn around after my junior year and study for the MCAT and prepare my application because my goal was still to avoid having to take a gap year. A year before that happened though, it was about the time where I was heading back to school my sophomore year after winter break when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Things felt pretty uncertain then and I didn’t like being far away from home at that point because I felt that I couldn’t help, but never for a second did my mom want me to stop school. So, a year later when I got that rejection letter, at first, I was pretty disappointed because I had built so many close relationships down in the South and I was really looking forward to continuing school there. But thinking of my mom and seeing what she had just recently gone through and beaten, it was pretty easy to get back to work. I wanted to prove a lot of people wrong but also wanted to do it for myself and my family, especially my mom, who was helping me the whole way. It lit a fire under me to come back to New York the summer before senior year and work even harder to achieve my goals, and I could not be happier with my situation at NYMC.
 
I think no matter how bad things get, there will always be a better time right around the corner if you just keep working and fighting through it. You can never give up.
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I am all about family. I also really value respect. I can't talk to people who think they are way above you. That's something that really bothers me. It's important to be accepting. Keep an open mind and seeing different opinions and values.
 
But I also wish I could step outside my comfort zone a little more. It’s pretty easy to find something that works and then stick with it. I should try new things, talk to different people, stray away from what I'm used to. But it’s also hard with how busy we are. There's always so much stress. In terms of my career, I definitely want to incorporate sports into my medicine. But I think coming into NYMC, I'm trying to keep an open mind.

What are your 5 Most Recently Played Artists on Spotify? 
The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar, Luke Bryan, Post Malone, Drake

If you could have any superpower, which one would you choose?
Teleportation.

Pick something or someone from NYMC to give a shout-out to!
Litty Committee, Nadiv's Basketball Organization, 1404

If someone wants to talk to you, they should lead with:
Does Raj live in 1404?