episode 3: aUSTIN guo li
AUGUST 23, 2023
INTERVIEW BY PRIYANKA GERA
Edited by Priyanka Gera and Michael Fortunato
Photo by Ivan Dominguez
Austin Guo, what were you doing before this interview?
Watching documentaries on wars.
How many documentaries are “documentaries?”
One. I was watching World War 2 documentaries before when I was eating dinner.
That’s a lot of documentaries for one day.
Yeah…every now and then I get sucked into watching random war documentaries because war history is interesting. War history and science history are the two parts of history I find interesting.
Where did you grow up?
Westchester, New York. Like 15 minutes north of campus.
If someone visits Westchester, what’s something you would want them to know or one thing you want them to do?
About Westchester? Westchester is so boring.
You have to rep your town.
There is nothing here…Honestly if someone were to visit me from California, I’d take them to New York City. Maybe if we wanted to have a quick lunch, then we could go to Tarrytown for food. New York City is just way more exciting and not very far. It’s only a MetroNorth ride away.
What about what you did before medical school? I know medicine is your second love, what’s your first?
Well, medical school is technically my third love. I feel like pre-med was my first relationship and then I broke up…and then physics was my actual first love. And then I started taking more advanced physics classes where you can’t assume anything is a sphere anymore. And, everything is painful. I stopped liking it so much. Then computer science was my second love. And now I’m at med school.
Next question is, how many doctors are there in your family? I know you’re not the only one.
3 so far. My dad’s dad, my dad and my sister. My aunt and uncle are PhDs and my cousin just graduated medical school––so my mom’s sister’s family. If you include them, then it’s 3 more.
What’s the last book you read Austin?
Netter’s Atlas.
True med student. Respect.
Well, I don’t know the last book I read cover to cover to be honest with you. The last book I read extensively has been Netter’s. And I still consult Netter’s frequently until this day.
Do you have any hidden talents?
I feel like I've thought about this question before. I do have an extremely useless talent––I’m very good at recognizing people from the back. I don't know why. In college, I’d see people, randomly with their backs turned to me, and I’d recognize who they are immediately.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
To be honest with you, I feel like when I hear advice, it is one of those things…unless it makes sense to me and I really internalize it, it really doesn't necessarily mean that much. There is something that kind of stuck with me for a very long time. When I was a senior in high school, one of my friends and our AP Calc teacher were just talking about how he was excited to go to college and live apart from his parents. He said, “I love my parents, but it’s easier to love them from a distance.” And it sounds silly, but like I've always thought that, and it's always stuck with me. It’s definitely much easier to love my parents from a distance, when I can selectively seek their wisdom and they aren’t on top of me all the time.
Next question, how do you define success?
Oh. Accomplishing what you want to, but it's very subjective. For me it's having a job I enjoy, making enough money to support me and my family and having a loving family.
Those are pretty good goals. Which emoji best describes you?
Wait, I have to look up emojis. Oh. The nerd emoji. 🤓
If you could travel back in time, when would you return to? Which time period?
Do I survive in that time period?
Sure, why not.
I don't know. Modern times in the United States are pretty nice. Wait, if I go back in time, do I retain my knowledge of the future?
Austin, you’re the one time traveling. You make up the rules.
I was gonna say if I had super armor, I could transport myself to a World War 2 battleground, but maybe not because I’d see a lot of gore. It wouldn't be anything earlier than the 1700s because I think the Renaissance is boring honestly. It would either be like one of the World Wars or one of the science revolutions.
If you could collect anything, what would you collect?
Degrees [laughs]. No, I honestly don’t collect anything. I tend not to hold sentimental value to objects. So I don't collect things in general.
Moving on to something more serious. What’s a friendship dealbreaker for you?
This is generic, but basically if someone is rude. I can just accept the fact that we are different people, so it's extremely rare that I don’t like someone and choose to not be friends with them. But sometimes people are extremely opinionated to the point where you can't talk about anything remotely controversial. Conversations where you are just preaching to the choir to each other are just extremely unstimulating.
On an even more serious note Austin, would you survive a zombie apocalypse?
NO.
Okay. I know not to come to you then.
I really don’t think I would. I wouldn’t survive, but I'd like to believe that I’d survive longer than average. But I'd still probably die pretty fast… you have to be really lawless and brutal, and I'm not like that.
If you could live in a book genre, which one would you choose?
Oh, that’s cool––probably just fantasy. Like those ones with different races and magic. Or how about that plus an afterlife? Because I would like to not be dead after I’m dead.
Alright Austin. This next one is going to be your favorite question ever. I need the top 3 moments from anatomy lab.
Taking out the brain on Monday [July 10]. Probably just opening up the thorax for the first time and dissecting it for the first time. And then, maybe taking out the brain the first time.
2 brains? That is pretty cool. Last question. Any words of advice to incoming M1s?
Set your own standards and be happy with achieving the goals you achieve. And they don’t have to be the same as the people around you.
That’s so sweet.
It’s like what I said earlier about success being very subjective. If you're not trying to be a neurosurgeon, then don’t set your standards to be as high as a neurosurgeon..
Contact Austin at ali2@student.touro.edu
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