“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
I have lived with a lot of sickness. I was not sick, but many people around me were. I remember my brother losing unhealthy amounts of weight, struggling to stay on the football team in high school, as the doctors ran tests to eventually diagnose him with Crohn’s Disease. There was another family member who missed my college graduation as they attended treatment programs for substance abuse. I spent many nights sleeping on a hospital bench, as my significant other was getting treatment for leukemia. Not all of it was forced upon me. I chose to seek it out. I went to medical school and diagnosed and treated patients with sicknesses of all kinds.
Life can be hard, and sickness can make it harder. I have devoted my life to trying to temper that sickness – trying to cure or treat to the best of my abilities. As a future doctor, I hope my own experiences lend me empathy and a listening ear for my patients. With each day of my practice, I plan to walk into the room and treat each patient as though it was my brother, my family member, or my significant other.
— Soley Olafsson