Heard Said That There Are

¶ … heard said that there are very few people who are fortunate enough to be clear on their life's purpose from an early age. If this observation is true, I do believe that I am one of those lucky few. for, from the time I was thirteen, I have been clear that my life's calling is to work as a surgeon in rural China. The desire to work as a practicing surgeon in rural China first formed when I was just about ten years of age.

for, this was the time when my father, a doctor by profession, decided that I was old enough to be taught about the importance of health care in the lives of people. He, therefore, began to teach me about the world of medicine through what he termed as experiential learning. He achieved this by adopting the simple, but highly effective method of allowing me to observe his interactions with patients during vacations and other school holidays.

After each such session, my father would explain in simple terms the nature of the patients' problems and how they could be treated. Of course, my father also encouraged and patiently answered the endless questions that inevitably form in a child's curious mind. My father's objective, at that point in time, may have been just to teach me about the importance of health care in the lives of people. However, he succeeded in achieving far more.

for, the time I spent with him gave me a real glimpse of just how satisfying it could be to work in a field that was so focused on the healing and nurturance of life. I may have just been a child, but even that child could not fail to grasp the expressions of pain and suffering on the faces of so many patients who visited my father's clinic.

But perhaps what made an even deeper impression on my psyche was the manner in which that pain would often transform into relief or hope after receiving treatment and advice from my father. The time I spent at my father's clinic, thus, led to my determining that there was nothing more that I wanted from life than the chance to work as a surgeon.

The decision that I would use my skills as a surgeon to benefit the people in rural China, however, came a few years later during a family trip to the countryside. for, it was during that trip that I got the opportunity to watch the hard, but vitally important, role that the rural "barefoot" doctors in China played. With no facilities even remotely resembling a well-equipped clinic, these doctors tended to the ailing and sick by literally walking to their houses in spite of the great distances.

I made up my mind, there and then, that I could perform a far more valuable service to society if.