Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/807066
t m c » p u l s e | a p r i l 2 0 1 7 19 Photo caption taking everything we have, everything that we've been entrusted with, and we should be taking it out into the communities, just like those nurses in Ghana were taking it out to the rural areas, because they just don't have real access to it any other way. We need to develop some type of home health care or community health care, and I don't think it is enough to have a clinic in a community. I think we need to go to people's homes. Q | With so much need in the U.S., why is it important for Americans to continue their work overseas? A | It starts here. We need to do more of that here, a whole lot more. But it's also that sense of responsi- bility. That we've been entrusted with so much, and maybe we would not be so dissatisfied with our lives if we were giving more. I don't think I've ever looked at it in terms of a big, philosophical plan, but just that it's what we are supposed to do. Why else would we be given so many privileges here, when people in other countries are dying from things that we don't die from here? People are dying from TB, they're dying from a cut on the hand, and why is that? It's because we are very selfish. We have so much and we're so desperate to hold onto it, and I think that makes us very insecure and unsettled, because we're so worried about losing this very privileged position we're in. Overseas, you see how simple access to health care can liberate peo- ple—they're just people who want to live, just like us, and I guess maybe what my traveling has helped me know is that there's this shared understanding across humanity that we want to live productive lives and we want to have families, we want to have close relation- ships, and what can we do in order to have those things? Health care is just basic. Not having it inhibits us in ways I never imagined before I started traveling. With that said, I'm not a believer that countries should be dependent, because I've seen it. From South Africa I was able to travel to a lot of different African countries and I got to a place where I just said, 'These countries are too dependent on the West, and that makes their lives so unstable.' Here in the U.S., we have our own ways of trying to police the world and make other countries more stable, but we're doing it on our terms, and so while that's stable for us, it's not stable for them. I've been given so much. Even though everything that I had planned in my life has not worked out, at very critical moments people came into my life and they shared what they had with me, and every time it put me on a different trajectory that I never would have imagined. So why wouldn't I want to help do that for someone else? I just can't think of any other reason why I'm here. Q | You seem so driven. What keeps you motivated on the especially hard days? A | I was one of three kids raised by a single mom who didn't graduate from high school, and my dad didn't go beyond 8th grade. So many people could have fallen off the tracks just based on those circumstances, but we didn't. I was the first person in my family to graduate from college, and a lot of that had to do with my mom. My mom would say to me, 'What's the highest degree you can get?' And I said, 'Well, I think it's a Ph.D.,' and she said, 'OK, go and get that.' It was just so matter-of- fact for her, just so simple. She always encouraged me to keep going because, for her, there was no reason for me not to. Q | You are the oldest and presumably most experienced student in your medical school class. How has this shaped your time here? A | Most of my classmates are 20 years younger, and they are so much smarter than me. I'm not kidding you! They are sharper and faster. It's like that time when nobody was calling me for job interviews. It's been very humbling because I don't catch onto the information as quickly. I came from history and sociology where you're just reading all the time and it is mostly just theories, nothing concrete like memorizing the parts of the kidney. I think I've made this experience harder for myself because I want to read and I want to talk and discuss things, but there's no time for that. It's been a hard transition and emotionally challenging at times. But I think I bring something to the table. I'm patient and I love hearing their stories." T H E PA R K LA N E L uxury Apartments www.Theparklane.com Corporate Units Avaliable For 3 Month+ Leases Medical Stays Visiting Academic and Medical Professionals On Site Dog Park Shuttle to all Major Hospitals in the Texas Medical Center Electric Vehicle Charging Stations On-Site Storage Included Assigned Garage Parking No Water or Garbage Bills 24hr. Valet & Concierge Service Pets Accepted Minutes from Texas Medical Center Sophisticated Surveillance System Discount to Texas Medical Center Employees NEW! 1701 Hermann Dr. I 713.526.VIEW Both furnished and unfurnished corporate units available!