A letter to my younger self
Dear younger me,
You are exploring different paths in the health sciences. Each step teaches you something about what energizes you, what does not, and what direction you quietly hope to find. What you do not realize yet is that you have always been drawn to public health; you just do not have the words for it yet, so you keep searching. That is how you find Medical Laboratory Technology. During these years, you will discover microbiology, not as a chapter in a book, but as a world you can touch.
You will spend your summers at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp, working at the front desk of the Polyclinic/Travel Clinic. You will welcome patients, travellers, doctors, nurses, and epidemiologists who unknowingly will plant a seed in you. You will write a bachelor’s thesis on Staphylococcus aureus, surgical site infections, and virulence factors. During your research internship, you will learn how to identify bacteria, perform MIC testing, and prepare DNA for whole genome sequencing.
Then 2020 will happen. You will start your hospital internship right as SARS-CoV-2 cases will rise in Belgium. You will watch the hospital laboratory reorganize itself overnight: new workflows, new diagnostics, new pressure. Instead of scaring you away, it will fascinate you. It will show you how crucial laboratories are during crises. After graduating, you will join the same lab as a Medical Laboratory Technologist. You will work in molecular diagnostics, analysing routine respiratory samples and SARS-CoV-2 specimens. You will become fluent in real-time PCR and extraction techniques.
But slowly, something inside you will start to shift. You will become more and more curious about the “bigger picture”: What happens to the numbers we produce? Who uses these results? How does this help the population? And that curiosity will point you towards epidemiology.
So, while working part-time at the hospital, you will start the bridging programme in Epidemiology in September 2020. It will be a heavy year, but it will give you exactly what you need: the foundations of epidemiology, statistics, research methods, and academic writing. You will work on projects ranging from PROMs and PREMs to diversity and polypharmacy in Antwerp. You will realize that epidemiology is not just numbers… it is people, stories, and context.
In September 2021, you will step into the Master in Epidemiology with much more confidence. You will explore different branches of epidemiology, public health, biostatistics… and you will find your rhythm. Your master’s thesis, conducted with Karolinska Institutet, will become a turning point. You will study Clostridioides difficile recurrence, work with Swedish registry data, and eventually publish the thesis as first author in a peer-reviewed journal. You will also complete two internships that will broaden your skills in data analysis: a quantitative data internship at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, converting R-commander scripts into R-studio materials for epidemiology courses, and a qualitative data internship at the University of Antwerp, where you will analyse open responses on transmural cancer care using thematic analysis. You will even serve as a Student Representative and coordinate the Buddy Programme, because community, inclusion, and connection matter to you.
By the time you finish the master’s programme, the world of epidemiology will have fully opened before you. For the first time, you will not just ask, “What should I choose?” You will know what resonates with you. Your first roles will reflect both your analytical strength and your growing public health identity: Tuberculosis epidemiological surveillance in Belgium (FARES), quantitative analysis for health promotion (ULB), and real-world evidence data analysis in a clinical AI scale-up (LynxCare).
Then, in April 2025, you will join Sciensano. You will become a Scientist in the Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases service, working on the Surveillance of severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) and the Belgian Mortality Monitoring (Be-MOMO). At Sciensano, you will find what truly fulfills you: space to continuously learn, evolve, and refine your expertise. You will strengthen your analytical skills, experiment with new tools, and intentionally invest in your growth as an epidemiologist.
One year later, you will observe the European citizens’ panel on preparedness. You will listen to perspectives beyond science alone, and you will begin to understand even more deeply how public health connects people, policy, and society. It will remind you why you started this journey in the first place.
Everything you are doing, every student job, every internship, every course, every shift in the lab, will make perfect sense. And soon, you will no longer feel like you are searching. You will realize that you have been building your path all along.
With love,
Peace 😊