Warning: Our guest today has done so much that it’s going to be really hard to give his background succinctly, but here goes. Dr. Calvin Sun earned his bachelors in 2008 at Columbia where he held numerous leadership positions. In 2014, he graduated from SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and served as graduating class president. Since 2014 he has been an ER resident at Montefiore and Jacobi Medical Centers and is also the Director of Resident Wellness at Jacobi.

In his non-existent spare time in medical school, he somehow managed to found and now runs The Monsoon Diaries, which he describes as “a blog-turned-travel company”. The Monsoon Diaries organizes flexible, budget trips and has gone to over 128 countries in the past six years. He is also a film-maker, popular speaker, and activist in the Asian American community.

Can you tell us about your background? Where you grew up? [2:26]

I was born and raised in Manhattan and was lucky to have parents who raised me in an environment where I was constantly learning and growing. In the interim of my youth my father died of a heart attack and my mom was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, which led me to determining my path for myself earlier than expected, and that led me to medicine which I thankfully believe was a decision I made on my own rather than a decision made for me.

My father had wanted me to become a doctor. Then after he passed I was free in that confusion to decide for myself whether or not I wanted to do that, and my mom gave her blessing to my exploring my options. I actually rejected medicine for a few years, because I felt it was something my dad had been forcing me to do, but ultimately the issue with overthinking is that I wondered whether I was rejecting it because of my father. I realized that if I really wanted to be free of anyone’s influence there was no way to know other than by trying it for myself. I applied to as many schools as I could, and didn’t think I would get in anywhere since my academic record was below average. My hope was to just get all rejection letters and check the box that I was free of the decision, knowing that I wasn’t meant to become a doctor. However, I was fortunate enough to get in, with people kind enough to see me as a human being rather than someone who studies all the time. I was very grateful that the evolution of medicine had become more humanistic and organic. While in medical school I insisted on keeping my life outside of medicine, and ironically it was all the things that almost got me flunked out (extracurriculars, etc) that got me into residency and becoming director of resident wellness. And now in my last few months of residency, if nothing else happens I will become an attending.

I believe you took a gap year between Columbia and med school. Are you glad you did? What did you do during that time? [6:42]

The best advice I can give anyone is to not listen to anyone else’s advice but your own. The second piece of advice I can give is to recommend taking gap years, as it’s the best decision I ever made. I took the time off since I didn’t know the answer to what I wanted. To have the confidence to say, “I don’t know,” that is a valid answer. I tell people to embrace that.