Dr. Tetlow's Personal Story Installments 1 - 3

  Sharing personal stories is a great way to connect with other people!  I've slowly been sharing my personal story about how I became a doctor via our bi-weekly newsletter.  So far, installments 1-3 have been shared -- keep an eye on our newsletter for installments 4-6 in the upcoming weeks!

Here's a recap of 1-3 below for those of you who missed it and are curious:

Installment 1

When I was 16, I wanted to be an actress and won a county players award as a sophomore in high school. But when I got accepted to college a few years later and deferred a year, I gravitated to more spiritual pursuits--it came down to learning acupuncture or living in an ashram. I chose the ashram and became a devotee of the Kripalu teacher Amrit Desai. I used the name he gave me during my college years, and, to get me to college, my parents had to convince me to not become a yogic nun and skip worldly life altogether...

Installment 2

So I packed away my sari and went to college. After I arrived, I quickly committed myself to the task of bringing yoga to the Main Line, and it got quite exciting. I taught yoga classes at both Haverford and Bryn Mawr, and we quickly outgrew most locations until I found myself teaching in the gymnasiums of both colleges, using a body mic to reach the large number of students and staff. A friend and fellow yoga teacher circulated throughout the class, checking alignment. I designed a junior year away to study Ayurveda (the traditional healing system from India) at the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I became the Institute's Yoga Teacher that year, as the established teacher was having a baby...

Installment 3

I was completing my junior year away from Haverford College in NM, as the Ayurvedic Institute's Yoga Teacher. Ayurveda is the traditional healing system from India, which surpasses the complexity of western medicine with 13 subclasses of diabetes (I only learned about 2 in medical school) and unique recommendations for the individual based on innate constitution and current imbalances (no cookie cutter protocols in this system!). As I continued my studies and yoga classes in NM, I received a letter from Haverford. They explained my junior year was no longer eligible for credit because "it lacked applicable skills training." Despite my respect for the school (I was a loyal "Ford") and strong affections for my teachers and friends, I seriously considered transferring. I eventually chose to transfer to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH, a school with strong co-operative education where I worked a trimester then studied a trimester in alternation until graduation. I wanted to see what I liked and what felt right, and co-op jobs let me do it. I eventually received a B.S. from Antioch with a focus on Pre-Med. Antioch provided narratives rather than grades, so when medical school applications asked for grade point average, I got a little worried. But I decided to choose my medical school before it chose me...