Identifying Adrenal Fatigue – OHR #491

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Letter From Dr. Minkoff

Dear Readers,

Greetings all!

A few weeks ago, I overheard a discussion from one of my grandsons who is considering going to college. He will be a senior in high school this year. He is a very good student but also one of the best in the country in cross country (he takes after his grandfather and grandmother for his athletic abilities! 😊)

His high school team won the NY State Championship last year.

After hearing some of the discussion, I was out for my Sunday morning long run, and to try to get my attention off my slow legs and the high heat and humidity, I got to thinking if I were my grandson, what would I write as my college applicant essay?

Here is what came out:

To College XX

Why I want to be accepted into your school.

It was a cold November day, the sleet hit our skin like little needle darts. The ground was soaked and muddy. The path was lined with shivering moms and dads with umbrellas and press people sheltering their cameras from the downpour.

It was the New York State Championship cross country meet. No postponement allowed. We were going to run. Our team was never predicted to be here. We weren’t even noticed by the famous schools with years of running creds. We were nobodies among the giants of fame. We were six unknowns. Brothers in suffering. Could we compete? Could we make a good showing? Would we be able to hold our heads high at the end?

Lining up in our mini uniforms, shivering, our feet already soaked, we paused for the starting gun. I looked left and right. I saw our coach. I saw my dad, mom, brothers, and sister. They yelled “go David!” I gave a nod. I had a brief revery of waking up in a warm bed this morning and smelling waffles in the toaster oven. Suddenly, “Bang” went the gun, then the chaos of the starting sprint, shoulders bumping, hearts pounding, mud potholes exploding in all directions.  We ran.

Two and a half miles over uncertain turf is not a long way, but when you are at the edge of your breath the whole time, the pain is deep. It you ever think one second ahead that you could still go this hard, you will be done. In that moment, for that one breath you can hang on.  The strategy is always uncertain, go easy at first? Go hard right away? Stay with the best guys no matter what? The mind game is even more volatile, will I have the strength today to persevere? Am I really committed to do what it takes? Will I let the team down? Can I inspire them in spite of my own fear? Does pretending something make it so?

I am known as a pretty easy going guy. I am funny and have lots of friends who like me. But I can be a tiger and when I decide to growl the universe backs away. Today we are 5 minutes into the race and I am that tiger. “Grrrr!” My goal is stronger than any temporary pain. I am in the flow. That means I am that consciousness that transcends the body. I command my body to run fast. I am out of the body and intending that it go the limit.

In what seemed like no time it was over.

There was glee. There was no memory of struggle or pain. Elation was all we could feel.

We had won!

Our team, for the first time in our coaches or high school’s history, had won the NY State Cross Country Championship.

It was impossible. We had done it.

I am telling this narrative to let you know a little about me. I come from a family were becoming your best is not an option. It’s a highly important value.  It’s a duty. That best is not just in personal achievement in sports or grades but also as a team member, as a person who can be a best friend, as a person who can help others. This naturally transcends to be a person who knows that my being here and alive at this time will require me to lead and support so that the human race and our planet will be better because I have been here and lived.

I recently did a two week course on a sailing ship called Competence and Leadership. It was a mixture of learning and doing about those two subjects. I learned that to be competent you have to know what you are doing and do it. And that in any area being competent means you are operating at a professional level. There are no half dones, almost dones, nearly dones. When you have done it, it is competed as it should be and anyone can look at it and make that evaluation. It is a completed thing. It causes pride in the producer and could even be considered art. I also learned that to be a true leader, one must be competent and when one is competent, he can be trusted by his group to do the right thing and maintain the high values and ethics of the group.

This course reinforced the lessons my parents and grandparents have already tried to instill in me and have allowed me to set new standards for myself for my future: to be competent and to be a good leader.

My grandfather told me that when his body is pretty much used up and ready for it to be thrown on the trash heap, that he hopes there will be a day to just ponder his life. There are two questions that he said had the upmost importance: Did he accomplish what he wanted to in his life and were other people glad that he was here and did that? He told me that if you live such that you meet those two goals at the end of your life, that you can make decisions now so that you can ensure that that will happen. You can have pride in the life that you lived. The worst thought would be that you had abilities and goals and you never believed enough in yourself to go after them. That would leave regret. You didn’t even have the guts to try. But even if you had high aspirations and didn’t make them all, there would be no regrets. You went for it and the goals were so big and you didn’t make them all, but alas, there are future goals for future times.

So in my life, I have big aspirations and want to make a difference and make life better for everyone around me. As a part of that dream, I want to go to a stellar learning institution like XXXXXX, because I know that if I am educated and can master information and gain skills and become competent in my chosen profession, that this will help me in becoming successful in my life and a trusted leader.

I know that the excellent education that I will receive at XXXXX college will help me do that.

Therefore I am applying here as a part of my launching pad to be the best I can be and make sure that I will be able to say at the end of my life, that others will have been glad that I lived, and when I look back on that life, a very key element is that I was a student here and learned skills that allowed me to become the person I wanted to be.

Sincerely,

David Minkoff (High School Senior applicant)

Would you let me in?

I’d love to have your feedback.

Have a great week.

Dr. David I Minkoff, MD