Allow me to reintroduce myself

Who am I

🧬 ⚛️ 🧠

The phrase “Tell me about yourself” can sometimes feel like you’re at the base of Mt Everest, gulping up at the peak shrouded by furrowing, threadbare clouds. I remember in the winter of 2010 in the midst of pneumonic fever dreams of apocalyptic proportions, a disembodied voice thundered through the dreamscape: “you have forgotten who you are” and my bones trembled. I mean... where does one even begin?

Tangentially, my journey to medical school has proven as mysterious as my existence. So I shall begin the way I began that. One foot forward ahead of the other, one step at a time.

I’ve always been an artist: translating intangible perception to palpably relatable expression just as DNA is translated to proteins. I take the ineffable and I render it useful. I’ve always been a scientist: perpetually asking “why?” and “how?” I am the eternal two year old thirsty for knowledge, the universe is my playground to tinker with and measure.

My name is Lauren Grace. I am 30 years young. I graduated from Georgia Tech in 2015 with a BS in Psychology and minor in Biomedical Engineering. I momentarily absconded from my medical school dreams when the reality of my battered GPA set in my stomach… a casualty of the war I ended up waging over the past decade with a brain injury. My experiences in life had come at a price while juggling the academics at one of the top schools in the country. I’ve spent the past few years working in research labs, brain injury rehabs, taking post-baccalaureate classes, and connecting with my creative self.

I am a fire eater, published researcher, certified brain injury specialist, and poet. I took the past few years to go through my own graduate program of life. I explored the possibilities. I traveled to different cities. I dated, I fell in love. I learned how to be financially independent. I contemplated a masters or PhD. I made money off my art. I couldn’t help but circle back to becoming a physician every. time. Without fail, I am called back to the path of a doctor like a ship lost at sea to the beckoning beacon of the light house.

I am anything but traditional. I read Robert Frost’s “Road Less Traveled” and perhaps took it too enthusiastically but in the end, here I am. You have to be careful what you wish for. I wandered off the beaten path and though I feel my return brimming with wisdom and fortitude, it took great strength to navigate the swamps of the unknown. With every failure, twist, and turn I feel it’s all been intentionally put into my path so I can be a better doctor. My calling is serving others and my purpose is to provide a safe container for people to self-reflect and heal within, providing a zone of nonjudgment teeming with evidence-based approaches to health and healing. A wise woman once told me “You are the medicine, life is the ritual” and to that I say: welcome to my ritual ✨🖤