Meet the Med Club: Lucas Gueller

Reasons that I have been so interested in the medical field and what inspired me to explore it in the first place:

I’ll begin with what inspired me, because that seems to be the beginning of it all. Tara and Craig Elsner, who are both medical professionals, are close family friends of mine and have been present in my life pretty much since my birth. I have grown up with their son Henry and going to their house, learning about what each parent did that day and what kinds of things were going on in the medical world. I would say my inspiration comes from them more than anywhere else. I have always admired the work that they do and how they help people every day.

On top of that, I was intrigued by the science behind it, which is where the Chelan High School Med Club and science classes at school helped me to further my knowledge and get a better understanding of how the body works. Mrs. Carpenter has played a very important role in teaching me about the human body and medical field, and also encouraged me to pursue my interests. The Elsners and Mrs. Carpenter are my biggest inspirations to pursue medicine.

This leads me into what interests me about the medical field, and curiosity is a large part of that. I love to learn about all kinds of things, but the human body fascinates me the most because it is just so complex. So many systems coming together and functioning in harmony to keep people alive and able to think and create incredible things like a computer! I see medicine as a way to fix this incredible machine and keep it running smoothly.

Secondly, medicine requires problem solving. I have always loved math problems and puzzle games, and that is a large part of what medicine is. For example, diagnosing people: you are given symptoms, a history, vitals, and whatever labs or scans have been done, and you must put together the pieces of that puzzle to diagnose and treat the patient. Solving puzzles can be frustrating, thought-provoking, rewarding, and overall extremely satisfying. When the puzzle being solved leads to a patient being treated or cured, that’s the best of both worlds.

Third, I enjoy interacting with people. Over the past three summers I have been a cashier at Lakeview Drive-in, talking to hundreds of people each week. I love to talk to all kinds of people, learn their background or what they do for a living, it gives me a chance to broaden my horizons in such a small town like Chelan. Not only do I enjoy learning from other people, I also enjoy just talking to people. Face to face interaction is becoming less common among the younger generations, but I cherish it above texting or any other online communication. You can’t get the same connection with technology as when you are having a conversation in person.