“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
I want to heal.
Scanning the room in this make-shift clinic, we were surrounded by patients wasting away from diseases we knew how to cure, and patients suffering from disabilities we knew how to fix. Although the money had been raised to alleviate this suffering, the necessary supplies had not yet arrived, and many of these patients would not survive the wait.
It was apparent that healing here would require more than just silver coins and paper bills alone — we needed strategy, coordination, and hands ready to help. Consequently, in my life I want to improve the system by which we deliver health care, so that we can best use the limited resources we have to bring about the most healing possible. I also want to get involved personally, to heal physically, emotionally, and spiritually in a patient's most important time of need.
But healing need not be limited to the hospital. People suffer in numerous ways, and healing may simply involve playing a game, sharing a meal, or having a drink and a laugh. Healing can come from a friend who is there to listen, a mother's hug at the airport arrival gates, or a father with time for soccer games and bedtime stories.
As I seek to heal through medicine, I hope that others will similarly use their own skills, talents, and time to bring about healing in their everyday lives. And in healing those around us, we may just learn the key to healing ourselves.
Scanning the room in this make-shift clinic, we were surrounded by patients wasting away from diseases we knew how to cure, and patients suffering from disabilities we knew how to fix. Although the money had been raised to alleviate this suffering, the necessary supplies had not yet arrived, and many of these patients would not survive the wait.
It was apparent that healing here would require more than just silver coins and paper bills alone — we needed strategy, coordination, and hands ready to help. Consequently, in my life I want to improve the system by which we deliver health care, so that we can best use the limited resources we have to bring about the most healing possible. I also want to get involved personally, to heal physically, emotionally, and spiritually in a patient's most important time of need.
But healing need not be limited to the hospital. People suffer in numerous ways, and healing may simply involve playing a game, sharing a meal, or having a drink and a laugh. Healing can come from a friend who is there to listen, a mother's hug at the airport arrival gates, or a father with time for soccer games and bedtime stories.
As I seek to heal through medicine, I hope that others will similarly use their own skills, talents, and time to bring about healing in their everyday lives. And in healing those around us, we may just learn the key to healing ourselves.
— Jamie Chang