My 15 Minutes of Fame

       There’s nothing like a small hometown for giving you 15 minutes of fame. My parents sent me this item that appeared in the social section of our local newspaper over the summer.

Paige and Sam Peek of Seagrove Beach went to New Orleans to see their daughter, Holly, graduate from Tulane University School of Medicine and School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine with dual degrees, Doctor of Medicine and Master of Public Health. She has accepted a Tulane residency position in the hospitals and clinics of New Orleans. Dr. Peek is a 2004 International Baccalaureate graduate of Niceville High School. Congrats to Dr. Holly Peek!

       Yes, I graduated on May 19, 2012. And after spending several weeks traveling the country interviewing for a psychiatry residency position, I ultimately decided to stay in New Orleans. In some ways, it was a difficult decision to make because I loved all the cities where I interviewed…New York, Atlanta, Charleston, San Francisco…and the residency programs were oh-so-tempting at schools like Columbia, NYU, Duke, Emory, and UCSF…but I kept feeling like I wasn’t finished in New Orleans yet! Oh I was finished being a medical student, and I was finished being Miss New Orleans (I had a wild ride in the world of beauty pageants but that’s a story for another time), but there was so much more I wanted to accomplish in New Orleans, and so much more I wanted to contribute. New Orleans has been called “the city that care forgot” and it could use a little extra care right now. So here I am, a psychiatry resident in what could now be called “the city that mental health care forgot.” And this is where my new journey begins.

       I have set my focus for the past several months on being an intern and learning how to be a doctor. Although this is occupying most of my time these days, I am continuing to write a biweekly mental health column for Tulane’s student newspaper, The Hullaballoo. As I continue on my journey as a psychiatrist-in-training in one of the most interesting, quirky, and lovingly bizarre cities in America, I am looking forward to where my career path takes me next.

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