Back in America

After a 6 hour drive to Johannesburg, 2.5 hr flight to Cape Town, 11.5 hr flight to Amsterdam, 2 hr flight to Paris, 11.5 hr flight to Los Angeles, overnight in LA with Scott's sister Tara (took the best shower of my life), and a 2.5 hr flight to Seattle.... I arrived at SeaTac Airport on Friday, June 4th to be greeted by my Mom. What a trip!
It is easy for me to say that my three months in South Africa were unforgettable. The medical aspect of the trip was formative and confirmed my desire to be a doctor more than words can describe. The exposure to a variety of health care concerns, complications, and challenges will have a lasting effect on my future career in medicine. I recently read the book Better by Atul Gawande. Read this book. It inspired me to embrace a deepened attitude of diligence in all aspects of life. The author challenges medical students and people in all professions to simply work to be better. The margin of error that is deemed acceptable in most professions costs lives or leaves lifelong complications in medicine. Facing that reality as a medical student and making the extra effort to reduce that margin of error is imperative. I plan to take the memories of South Africa and the lessons of this impacting book to my new location in Portland as I embark on a new chapter of life: Medical School. I am moving on August 1st and beginning school on August 16th, oh the anticipation!

Last words to all my readers: Take advantage of all your opportunities in this amazing country. Most of us have the comforts of good health, loving family, education, financial stability, and the prospect of a bright future with endless possibilities. The reality is that most of the world can only dream of attaining these things. Some of you reading this are probably thinking.... geez Shanley, way to make me feel guilty for all that have or simply that this is old news to you. Well even if it is old news or makes you feel guilty, my intention is to kindly remind us all that we are lucky by birth, therefore we should appreciate it and make our world even better.

So I encourage everyone to go see the world, embrace differences, be uncomfortable, think differently, help someone, make someone's day a little brighter, challenge yourself, and in the words of Ghandi: Be the change you wish to see in the world.