Why did I choose medicine? This question constantly rings in my ears as the profession enters the potential of financial ruin, brought largely by politicians, administrators, and sheer bureaucratic ineptitude. So why did I choose medicine and why do I stick with it? I constantly have to think back to my own experiences that kindled my first love of the profession. No matter the challenges physicians will face, I will always remember how I got hooked.
Etched in my memory forever are the visions of a ten year old boy bullying, yelling, and even physically abusing some younger kids on the grounds of the dilapidated HIV/AIDS shelter in Salvador, Brazil. What frightened us volunteers the most was that he would not only spit and urinate in the food bowls of younger children, but he would also pick at their scabs and open up bloody wounds. He may not have known the consequences of his actions, but I think that he may have intrinsically understood the finality of his condition and took out his rage on the other children out of despair, fear, or both.
For me, this child also symbolized the failures of our society. Even with all of our intellectual and financial resources, we seem to have failed some of our most vulnerable and dispossessed. Before volunteering in Salvador that summer, I had spent three weeks in the citadel of the privileged, Cambridge University, indulging myself in intellectual debates that ranged from contemporary world politics to the anatomy and functions of the brain. Only after spending time in Cambridge and Salvador could I truly grasp the enormity of the divide between these two worlds: the world of the fortunate few and that of the destitute. The chasm between these two worlds is so profound that only a person with the vision of a world leader, compassion of a physician, and the curiosity of a scientist could even begin to bridge the gap. I want to be that person, someone who embodies these traits and has the moral courage to challenge the status quo. I want to become an agent of change for the most underrepresented segments of our society.
