It is what it is

It is what it is. What a weird little quote to be hung on the wall of the doctor’s office I have found myself in this week. It’s an obvious truth, for things are what they are and it is what it is, essentially seeming to say there is no changing what is the essence of something. But at the same time, this is not an optimistic fact, especially in the walls of the clinic. I don’t entirely know why this quote hung upon the wall right above the check-in window hits me in such a weird way, possibly just because it does not inspire or even lend itself to the idea that change exists or that better things may be somewhere in the future. It somehow antagonizes my optimistic worldview, leaves me feeling that things are defined, are stagnant, are some already determined outcome.

In reality, medicine is the opposite of this. While a diagnosis may be a fact, we wield in our minds and our pens a chance for improvement. We actively think about all of the differential diagnoses, told early on never to pigeon hold ourselves to one solitary disease, to avoid the anchoring bias. “It” may be 10 different things or multiple things all at once. “It” may get better or worse with time. “It” may be treated in several different ways, and “it” may affect the diverse myriad of patients in different ways depending on their social supports, their comorbidities, their age. When you walk into a doctor’s office, your entire life has the potential to be shifted, a new trajectory set forth whether through getting answers about a medical problem, receiving the pep talk needed to make an attempt at smoking cessation, or walking out with a prescription in hand and the potential to get better.

I know it is just a seemingly harmless, ambiguous quote that hangs at the entrance: “It is what it is.” But at the same time, I think medicine and science is at odds with this simple little quote. Things may not always be quite what they seem, and even if they are, they often have room to change. That isn’t to say there is not some acceptance of reality needed at times, but leaving room for possibility is essential.