About Lila
I was three years into medical school when I began to feel disconnected from medicine and from my dream of becoming a doctor. I didn’t have a way to synthesize the stories that lingered in my mind after shifts in the hospital.
I took a leave of absence from medical school and decided to write everyday. I wanted to see what I learned about myself and the stories I carried with me. I fell in love with writing. I didn’t know if it was possible to do both, be a creative and be a doctor.
When I returned to medical school, I decided to specialize in psychiatry so that I would have the training to take in other people’s stories and write my own. Since then, it has been a balancing act of finding time for my two passions, being a doctor and a writer.
I’ve been working on a novel about a young woman who takes a figure drawing class that changes her life and her trajectory. I’ve written personal essays about pivotal moments in medical training and short stories about queerness and finding home. I hope to reach premeds, medical students and residents who are in search of authenticity and meaning in the midst of an intense and long training.