Push With Josh! (Medical Escapade)

Isn’t it fancy meeting you here?
My name is Joshua Torres and today I would like to share to you about my next step I am taking in my journey of conquering my goals. I am an aspiring Orthopedic Surgeon, entering my last undergraduate year at the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College. I have been accepted into one of the most prestigious Fellowship programs, with the opportunity to go to Barcelona, Spain and network with a wide array of physicians.
Wrapping up my last two semesters, I have experienced this grand thrill to graduate, and move on with my journey to Medical School. But, part of me still struggles to fathom how I graduated high school almost 4 whole years ago! After my high school graduation dinner at El Mariachis, I spoke with my uncle, a conversation that I remember to this day. He had told me, “Enjoy these next 4 years, because they will be gone in a blink of the eye”. I promise I have blinked once or twice since then, however this conversation has never been as relevant to my life as it is now.
Jumping from being a Senior in high school to a Freshman in college, you quickly learn you are no longer the big-fish in the little pond. College has been interesting, to say the least. I have had some of the most life changing experiences in college, or in other words, a sneak-peak at “adulting”. I remember when my mom would do my laundry, and I would always ask her “Why do you separate whites and colors if they all are going to get washed?”. Many years and white shirts later, I understand first-handedly that this was a cheat code to the adult life. If you had asked me, “Where do you see yourself in 4 years” after graduating high school, I would have never guessed that I am in the position that I am now.
During the summer entering my Junior, I was fortunate to work along side numerous prestigious physicians, with the desire of getting my feet wet in the medical world. I was fortunate to work alongside specifically this one Internal Medicine Doctor. He took me under his wing and treated me as a second son. One day he sat down with me at lunch and probed my interest in medicine. “Where do you see yourself if you were not chasing your goal of becoming a doctor” I pondered for a couple of seconds and realized not even I knew the answer to that question. Nothing has ever struck my fascination as the complexity of the body did. We walk this earth everyday and take for granted how resilient, how durable, and how malleable our bodies are. If you slice your finger open, platelets rush to the rescue within hours! This is aside from all the developed technology that has been created to further assist the body’s natural power. Simple technology like prosthetic limbs, insulin pumps or even glasses have pushed the body over limits where there once was a limit. Although there may be limits with the body, I feel there are no limits when it comes to learning about this beautiful vessel functions.
At the beginning of my Junior year, I wanted to experience the Research side of the world. Since then, I have been working in a research laboratory, under the Jupiter Life Science Initiative, writing my Honors Thesis on how individual areas around the world, evolutionarily, produce diversity in sleep, in a single species of Drosophila. Before entering the research world, I never knew how resourceful fruit flies were, nor how complex sleeping was! I thought we just closed our eyes, dreamed about the pizza we had for lunch, and then woke up. Simply using the fruit fly, we’re able to identify specific areas, neurons, proteins, and genes that are associated with these complex behaviors. The most fascinating part is that 75% of disease-causing genes in humans, have a functional homologous gene in the fruit fly!
Aside from my fascination in the laboratory and getting ready for graduation, I work for my University’s Recreation Department and take classes like any other student. I always wanted to make sure that if I were ever to try and help someone with their fitness, I would have to be compliant with my fitness as well. Here on campus, I am the Supervisor for Intramurals. The Recreation Squad and I host sports games, tournaments, and events to ensure everyone is out getting their 60 minutes of fitness a day, as the NFL advises. When I am not in the laboratory or at work, you can find me glued to my desk getting school work done.
Overall, I have truly been so grateful to work alongside numerous physicians, professors, post-doctoral, master and undergraduate students. However, this opportunity is much greater than anything I have experienced thus far. The Atlantis Project is allowing me to experience the culture, dynamics, as well as a whole new healthcare system through this trip. I am ecstatic to take on this opportunity I have been granted to dedicate my time to help others. There are multiple costs ranging from program fees to plane tickets to food in order to absorb the most out of this experience. I would be beyond grateful for the help and support that you have to offer. Any donations $5, $10 etc. will go a long way in helping me on my journey of pursuing medicine and becoming an Orthopedic Surgeon to help others!
Thank you for your time!
Joshua Torres