Episode 11: Sam Laiacona
January 15, 2018
I’ve always seen my mom as a role model. She, admittedly, didn’t make the best decisions right after high school. She used the lessons learned from her experiences to make sure my sisters and I didn’t make the same mistakes as she did. The one main sticking point was always education. Since I was young my mom made sure that my two sisters and I knew how important it was to get a degree. To prove this to herself and to her kids, she eventually decided to go back to school. Despite raising three kids and working a full-time job, she found the time to get her Bachelor’s degree. I’ve always been a big proponent of the saying “Actions speak louder than words” and no one personified this statement more than my mom. This action meant a lot to me, and really showed me how far motivation and hard work can take someone. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the consistency in her personality has meant a lot to me. Someone who practices what they preach.
The most important thing I value in someone is consistency in personality. When someone hangs out with me one on one, I want them to see me and treat me the same way as they would when hanging out with a large group of people. I think sometimes peer pressure changes people when you’re in groups as opposed to private, one on one conversations. I want people to be genuine and consistent with who they are as a person, regardless of the social situation. It’s a huge turn off to me when people change who they are, whether to seem cool or get a cheap laugh, among other things. I’ve always chosen to become closer with people if they have this quality, and I find it is easier to build a relationship and trust them.
Withholding judgement until you get the full picture of the situation or person is something I fully learned in college. I had the opportunity to interact with a much more diverse group of people than I ever had, and I think I was a bit more closed minded than I thought I was. College really opened my eyes to the virtues of having more perspective, and gave me some lifelong friends and experiences in the process (Go Terps!).
Another saying I always tell myself is, “It’s never as good as it seems, but it’s never as bad as it seems.” It helps me keep my emotions in check in good times and bad, and helps keep me focused through stressful situations, especially with school and my personal life. If there was one thing I could work on, I have some difficulty trusting people. In high school, I had bad experiences with some people who were very prone to changing in different social situations for their own benefit. I found myself becoming hypersensitive to people who were like that afterwards, often finding it hard to build trusting relationships.
Since getting to medical school, I’ve strived to get better at opening up to people and sharing more about my personal life. I have always been someone who bottles away feelings and someone who is very emotional, letting everything boil over. Meeting such a mature and trusting group of people here has allowed me to open up more. I find myself trusting more people than I ever have. It was a personal goal of mine before coming to meet as many people as possible and to be as extroverted as I can. But the people here make it so easy. It’s never been easier to step outside my comfort zone, meet people, and become more trusting of people. It really helps that we have such an amazing class.
What are your 5 Most Recently Played Artists on Spotify?
Young the Giant – Great study music. Sameer, the lead singer, has the voice of a god
Porter Robinson – Most creative EDM artist I’ve listened to. So glad I saw him (for the third time!) in Brooklyn on Dec 8th
2Pac - One of the greatest story tellers in music, I find myself getting lost in his lyrics on a daily basis
Led Zeppelin – Greatest rock band of all time
Arctic Monkeys – Love their progression from a punk/hard rock band to more pop. They changed their sound and managed to be just as good
If you could have any superpower, which one would you choose?
At this point in my life, stop time. There is not enough time in the day to get done what I want to get done. As an introvert, it would force myself to have alone time.
Pick something or someone from NYMC go give out a shout out to!
Shout-out to my roommates (Andrew, Gabe & Jesse) for always being down to host festivities. And shout out to the Los Angeles Rams for giving me a non cringe worthy season for the first time in 13 years.
If someone wanted to talk to you, they should lead with…:
Their favorite music artist and why. I can learn a lot about someone based on their taste in music