Second Year Student Blog: Maguette Seye
When will things make sense? When will life really start?
I’ve asked myself these questions more times than I can count since starting PA school. I used to think, I just need to get through this semester. Then it became this exam. Then this practicum. Surely after that, things would feel settled. Surely then I’d be “good.”
But the finish line kept moving.
I remember long days of lectures followed by ten-hour study sessions at the library, surrounded by wonderful friends yet still feeling completely exhausted. Even now, in clinical year, the thoughts creep in: When will I be done studying? When will the charting end? When will I finally arrive? Month after month, I found myself waiting for life to begin somewhere in the future.
Toward the end of my first year, after navigating some personal challenges, I paused and asked myself something different. What exactly am I waiting for? Why did I believe that life only existed on the other side of the hard parts?
Around that time, I saw a video that said, “You’re walking in answered prayers.” That line stopped me in my tracks. I realized how much I had been rushing—plowing forward without pausing to notice where I actually was. This journey to PA school had been long, difficult, and uncertain, yet here I was, living something I once only dreamed about.
That realization pulled me back to my childhood. My parents immigrated to the United States with hopes of building a better life for our family. There were years when we had very little besides one another. I spent time living in Senegal, West Africa with loved ones while my parents got settled, and when I returned, I didn’t speak English and felt out of place in ways that went beyond the language barrier. I remember facing bullying and often just trying to survive until the next milestone—this grade, that exam, the day I could finally be “good.”
That mindset followed me into adulthood. If I could just get through undergrad, finish my prerequisites, work the twelve-hour shifts, and earn enough patient care hours, then I’d be good. Getting into Duke’s PA Program felt like a dream come true—and somehow, even then, I was already looking ahead to the next hurdle.
What I’m learning now is this: if I spend my entire life waiting for things to feel easier or clearer, I’ll miss the beauty that’s already here. So I’m taking the time to reflect and appreciate some of those moments.
Being at Duke has given me moments I didn’t expect—walking through Duke Gardens when the cherry blossoms were in bloom, seeing a movie with friends in the middle of a snowstorm on a random Tuesday night, celebrating birthdays, debriefing after exams, crying, laughing, and growing alongside people who make even the hardest days feel lighter.
I have also learned to appreciate my family more deeply. I am endlessly grateful for my community back home in Greensboro, North Carolina. For my parents, who make sure I always leave home with a warm meal. For my brothers, who keep me grounded and sane. For my cousins and friends, with whom it feels like no time has passed at all when we are together.
I have also been appreciating how much service has filled my cup since starting PA school and the projects I have been able to be a part of. From leading a health fair for seniors in low-income housing, to delivering groceries for older community members as a Delivery Lead with Care Connections, to cooking for the Durham community with Urban Ministries, helping create a wellness garden on campus, and serving as Vice President of our Stead Society, these experiences have reminded me why I fell in love with medicine in the first place.
PA school hasn’t been easy, and it hasn’t always looked the way I imagined. But it’s been real. And it’s been mine.
Whether you’re just starting to imagine PA school—logging patient care hours and working on applications—or you’re already in it, pushing through didactic year exams or a tough clinical rotation, this reflection is for you. This is your reminder to pause. To look around. To be here. Trust that you will get there.
Your “good” isn’t waiting for you in the future.
It’s already happening.
Maguette Seye is a second-year student with the Duke Physician Assistant Program. Email maguette.seye@duke.edu with questions.
Editor’s note: Duke Physician Assistant Program students blog monthly. Blogs represent the opinion of the author, not the Duke Physician Assistant Program, the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, or Duke University.