How do you maintain productive energy after you graduate?
By Mudra Patel UA’25 and Jim Stellar
Mudra and I met in Psychopharmacology in the Fall of 2024. She had some dual credits and finished her college years in December of 2024. That began this conversation as a blog about what her life is like now as she applies to dental school. Our point here is that the university processes, with its requirements against which one can measure their progress, provides a structure. It is also a familiar one from high school with classrooms and class years and even a graduation date.
Coming back home has been a bit of an over stimulating experience with some family issues impacting me more than I thought. I’ve just been trying to find ways to keep myself busy. I’ve been making use of my free time to go to the gym to energize and remind myself that I am capable of pushing myself. I’ve also been adjusting my dental school application timeline.
The application process is a bit like being in school in that it is a project with tasks and a deadline. Do you think that is helping? And from your moment now as someone who has recently finished college and awaiting the Spring graduation ceremony, what do you think will be the structure that keeps you energized when you are in a profession?
I think having a set routine to follow is something that has been helping my adjustment back home. I realized two weeks after finishing my semester that I was missing structure in my life. Being able to take control of my time and scheduling things out has allowed me to get back on track which I think is crucial in keeping up with the tasks I must complete prior to submitting my Dental School application. Energized…I said previously going to the gym is a way I try to energize myself, however I am not sure if that is working as I feel anxious and need constant reassurance that the whole process of applying will work out. As I am preparing for the Dental Admissions Test which I aim to take in mid-April, I feel an immense amount of pressure to succeed and do well. I think each individual component of applying and the stress that comes with it is a reminder to slow down and take care of myself. I have noticed that I need to make it an obligation to take care of myself and put my mental health at the frontline for the sake of my future goals and being content in life.
This is a great insight, but I want to follow up on one point. Why does structure help keep one on track (it does for me too)? What do you think about the brain or about psychology that makes that happen?
I believe as humans we have an innate nature to keep things organized in our brain. Simply knowing how to get to one location or having a routine is something we like. I think it’s safe to say that we as a society have learned from experiments with mice that once they learn how to find the food or find the platform to relieve them from swimming, they are able to remember the exact Google-Maps-like direction that satisfies their goals.
Naturally we are innately made to work towards accomplishing our goals. However, we are much more complex humans with feelings and so this approach is not straight-forward as we may want it to be. As I have felt lost with my goals many times, I need reminders and a routine to stay on track. I also occasionally need a reminder of seeing others achieve their goals, that I also can be in a similar position like them. Frankly, the group helps.
This is what makes our brains and behavior so fascinating. We have a map of the world that we compose in our heads. This makes me think our brains are concrete. We also have mirror neurons that clearly play a role in the routines and goals we establish, perhaps by representing in our heads what other people are doing with their actions.
Fortunately, our brains are very adaptive in that we are learning constantly from ourselves and others on how to improve our approaches to our goals. And… I think we just like being and thinking we are in control to ease the tensions that arise.
This is fascinating. I love the idea of making things seem “concrete” like you said. It is much easier to believe and to get motivated to do something concrete. We have to eat and it is not just our hunger that propels us to prepare and get food. It is our routine. Some of us eat 3 meals a day (not 5 or 6 like we are grazing), and that structure drives our schedules. I know, I have no trouble getting up to go eat (or prepare) dinner.
Reflecting on earlier parts of this conversation, it is clear to me that I came into my gap year expecting things to be a bit more straightforward and concrete now that I don’t have the lurking thought of finishing my degree stressing me out. However, I realized quickly that the difficult part of this transition would be planning and sticking to a routine now that the only person relying on me to achieve anything was myself. No professors or advisors expecting me to show up meant that I needed to figure out how to show up for myself. Through my self-reflections of what I am doing, I can see that the brain is complex and I have invested a lot of energy into using my prefrontal cortex to create a schedule I can see being concrete. I am a month and half into studying for the DAT and and prepping components of the application, and I have learned time and time again that even though I have a routine I follow a normal basis, I still make adjustments as the day goes by. I have come to the understanding that none of this will be perfect as we want it to be, but it is okay. We have parts of the brain that we specify to have certain functions, however it is more complex than that and probably due to the other systems in our brain like the limbic system taking control. I think that is the beauty of things, we never truly know what is happening. We’re in control of a lot of things, but sometimes we have to let the things happen the way they are meant to happen to see the complexities of the brain unravel.
