For this year’s 5^th Find-Your-Role-Model Session (58^th overall), we invited as guest Dr. Kana Miyata (Noshiro), who is a graduate of TMDU, and is currently working as assistant professor of nephrology at St. Louis University Hospital.

Dr. Miyata explained how after having experienced first-hand the gap between her and the local medical students during  her 6^th year overseas clinical rotations, she developed a desire to see how far her abilities would be accepted in the world, and also to challenge herself, which led to her motivation to consider practicing medicine abroad. In the session, she talked about the differences in medicine between Japan and the US, and also balancing work and life, from the unique perspective of a female doctor. Especially for work-life balance, she shared with us an actual detailed daily schedule, pointing out that  4am to 7am was the only time she has to herself, so she tries to study and finish her journal writing all in that time frame.

Towards the end, Dr. Miyata taught us about the differences between Japan and North America in the way female doctors work and their ways of balancing work-life based on her own experiences, which she titled “Working as a female doctor in North America”. The female-male gender role stereotype inside the household is not as rigid in North America, and so she mentioned how it is easier there to more flexibly build a schedule with your partner, and to maintain work-life balance.

While there is much that you can accomplish through working hard on your own for your professional life, as for your personal and family life, it is often impacted by many factors out of your control. Perhaps the more detailed and clear a career vision you try to uphold, the more you may find yourself worrying excessively about these uncontrollable factors. In such circumstances, we believe many students found comfort in Dr. Miyata’s words: “Paths will always open for those who have strong ambitions and perspire. Leave your encounter with your partner to luck and look at the process as a fun one, and also even if your new job is a bit different from the future plan you had originally depicted, take it as another blessing of life, and enjoy it. As for work-life balance, as long as you are creative and work hard, it’s definitely attainable”. We hope that through this Find-Your-Role-Model Session, many students were able to rid themselves of unnecessary anxiety and worry born from uncontrollable factors related to planning for the far future, and truly dedicate their attention to the things that they can work on right now, right in front of them.