I always knew I was destined for medicine… knew those genes were deeply embedded in my DNA as a daughter of Dave and Julie Mast.
ok...but how exactly I was going to get there, and which specialty was my calling, now THAT was and still is largely undecided. However, as I look back to see what brought me to be standing at the end of my first year of Physician Assistant (PA) school, all I can say is this -- God deliberately guided me to this point and will continue guiding me through the rest of my life if I remain open and responsive (and sometimes even though I am stubborn and determined) to what HE has planned for my life.
So how did it begin?
I once read that being in the medical field is not just a career path you choose because it makes good money and fits into the dream lifestyle. It calls for long nights, hours away from the family, facing life and death daily, and a constant drive to be better and learn more. So, if you choose medicine it has to be a calling… and I am so thankful it is mine!
Now this story is more like a puzzle so bear with me...
PIECE 1: This is my family.
My father is a perfusionist at OSU and my mother is a physical therapist for home healthcare. Both medical and both in love with what they do. Now as a perfusionist, my dad has the responsibility to circulate people’s blood during heart surgery (in a nutshell) … this requires on-call weekends, nights at the hospital, and with little girls at home… well its not that easy!
So, on those days when dad had to spend the night, my mom would bravely drag us to the hospital where we would meet dad… all dressed in his fancy teal scrubs, and we would order Chinese food and sit in his office and talk and laugh and enjoy each other’s company. IF we got lucky, he would also take us to the special basement where they keep all the automated, self-sufficient robots that - in our eyes - were quite literally the COOLEST things ever! As I grew up and demonstrated passion for the field, my dad even took me into a few surgeries where I got to witness first-hand the magic that happens in an OR! And, these memories of “long ago” and “not-so-long-ago” are what created my foundational love for the medical field!
PIECE 2: Now, we are moving from lil’ 7-year-old Alissa to Alissa in her high school years – which were not the easiest nor my favorite. Seems like a large leap in time, but, I am trying to narrow it down to the MOST pivotal moments along the way… SO WELCOME TO HIGH SCHOOL!! This is where people really start thinking about their passions and what they want to do throughout their lives… and my specialty switched from art therapist to veterinarian to surgeon and finally in my senior year I settled on PA… and again it was because of an intimate relationship with medicine. BUT this time, I was the patient. Not a visitor. Through injuries and my eating disorder I spent a lot of time in doctors’ offices, hospitals, and emergency rooms. This doesn’t SEEM like a good thing, and at the time I hated every second of it…. but as always God’s plan is bigger and better than what we can see at the moment. Anyway, what I began to notice after all these accumulated hours in medical facilities was that I often interacted, not with the doctor for extended periods of time, but his right-hand-man… the PA! They were always there to assure me and make me feel validated for all my frustration and emotions that swirled and welled up inside of me. And I loved that deep connection… the one that moved beyond diagnosis and disease to meeting people where they are and connect intimately with them in their time of need… it drew me in. I decided PA was the path for me.
PIECE 3: “Hold up… you just said that you decided PA was the path for you so why is there more…” well my answer to you is this: just because you think you know what you want… there is still doubts and questions that come from inside or outside that make you wonder if you chose correctly, or if you will even be able to make it to your desired destination. And part 3 is where the PA profession was finally recognized as my CALLING not just my CAREER.
Entering my freshman year of college, I was distant from God… I had my path and had just gotten out of eating disorder treatment and therapy. I knew I needed God, but I could no longer feel Him or hear Him as I did before my eating disorder flipped my life upside down. Little did I know that was only part of a painful plan that would help me realize my calling AND restore my relationship with my creator and the creator of what I loved to study. My life came to a screeching halt again – quite literally – when I got into a major car accident October 3,2017. My right wrist fractured, my eating disorder relapsing in its full and destructive glory, my brain a mush of pain and frustration and exhaustion from a severe concussion, and worst of all… a NECK BRACE (I kid you not people literally would come up to me for years after recognizing me only as the girl who had the neck brace XD)! Basically, I was a mess. Then... in December came the excruciating pain in all of my joints – so bad I would scream when I so much as made a fist - and doctors with no answers. WERE'NT THEY SUPPOSED TO KNOW?! I felt helpless. I knew nothing of medicine yet, and the ones who did were puzzled. I couldn’t help myself… and yet no one knew what was wrong… And it only got worse. With the pain soon came the seizures and depression and tears. I remember finally crying to God, instead of looking only to science, one night begging Him to come back. He assured me He had always been there and that even this had a purpose… a few days later my mom found an answer: a drug reaction from my concussion medications. And a few days later relief came with this message: “Don’t forget this feeling. Don’t forget the helplessness and fear of not knowing. This is how YOUR patients will feel with you. You will be the one with the medical knowledge and they will be in your hands. Never forget how you felt. (-God)” And just like that I knew not only that I loved medicine, but that this was my calling. This was part of my purpose in this world.
PIECE 4: Now I have given you all these reasons that lead to me choosing PA and why it is not just a career to me but a calling. But I haven’t told you exactly WHY – confusing I know but let me explain because this… this is where it comes together! I joke with people that medicine runs through my veins, tell them that I want to give back and help others as I was helped all those years, and laughingly say that I love cadaver lab wayyyyyyy too much for it to be normal otherwise… and all of these things are true...but the main reason I am in PA school and endure an 8-5 schedule with every waking moment focused on studying and understanding all I have learned is because of God.
God is the great physician. He is MY great physician and has given me healing beyond what any doctor could… and He does this by meeting people where they are and serving the broken and the sinners. Mark 2:17, “When Jesus heard this, he told them, ‘it is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I didn’t come to call the righteous but the sinners.’” Our job on this earth is to be the hands and feet of Jesus… and there is an infinite number of ways to do this, and the way that I have found to combine my passion and calling and natural gifts from God is medicine. In this field I get to meet people where they are, in their brokenness and pain, just like God did for me. I get to bring hope and joy into the darkness of pain and suffering. I get to serve others and make a difference in the world. Here is where my understanding and empathy of being in their shoes combines with the natural flow and understanding of medicine inside the brain that God so graciously given me. This is where I can make an impact. So if you ask me why PA this is my final answer:
I, Alissa Mast, am here because I want to be a world changer. Maybe not of the whole world, but I want to change the world of my patients and their families, offering physical and spiritual healing. I choose PA so I can sacrificially serve others as God came down from heaven and served us and does so from His rightful throne daily. I want to use the gifts and passions He has given me to the best of my ability, not for my glory, but to help other broken people like myself and to bring glory to God.
That is why I chose to be a PA. And from this I have learned so much that I cannot wait to share with you!
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