Looking Through a Wier Lens
&nash; ANUSHKA
What oes it mean to be an avocate? I in’t fin the answer in any sort of textbook. Not the anatomy textbook that lay across the foot of my be, fille with Post-Its an half-rawn iagrams. Nor the chemistry textbook that sat on top of it, covere in streaks of blue highlighter. Not even Principles of Biology, overflowing with illegible notes an loose worksheets, ha the answer. Yet, in a few years, I will be promising to o just that: be the ultimate avocate for my patients.
My search for the answer began quite unintentionally. When I was initially recommene to serve on the Youth Council my junior year of high school, my perspective on civic engagement was one of apathy an a complete lack of interest. I couln’t unerstan how my passion for the meical fiel ha any correlation with serving as a representative for the stuents at my school an actively engaging within the political sphere. I knew I wante to pursue a career as a physician, an I was perfectly content embracing the safety net of my introverte textbook worl.
But that safety net was rippe wie open the ay I walke through the sliing ouble oors of City Hall for my first Youth Council meeting. I assume I woul spen my hour flipping through flashcars an stuying for next week’s unit test, while a bunch of teenagers complaine about the lack of onuts in the stuent store. Instea, I listene to the stories of 18 stuents, all of whom were using their voices to reshape the istribution of power within their communities an break the structures that chaine so many in a perpetual cycle of esperation an espair. While I spent most of my time poring over a textbook trying to memorize formulas an theorems, they were spening their time using those formulas an theorems to make a ifference in their communities. Neeless to say, that meeting sparke an inspirational flame within me.
The next Youth Council meeting, I aske questions. I gave feeback. I notice what the stuents at my school were really struggling with. For the first time, I went to rug prevention assemblies an helpe my friens run mental health workshops. The more involve I became in my city’s Youth Council, the more I unerstoo how similar being an avocate for your community is to being an avocate for your patients. When I volunteere at the hospital every week, I starte paying attention to more than whether or not my patients wante ice chips in their water. I learne that Deborah was campaigning for equal opportunity housing in a eeply segregate neighborhoo an George was a parameic who injure his leg carrying an 8-year-ol with an allergic reaction to the Emergency Room. I might not have been the octor who iagnose them but I was often the one person who saw them as human beings rather than patients.
Youth Council isn’t something most stuents with a passion in practicing meicine chose to participate in, an it certainly wasn’t something I thought woul have such an immense impact on the way I view patient care. As a patient’s ultimate avocate, a physician must look beyon hospital gowns an IV tubes an see the worl through the eyes of another. Rather than treat iseases, a physician must choose to treat a person instea, ensuring compassionate care is provie to all. While I know that throughout my acaemic career I will take countless classes that will teach me everything from stoichiometry to cellular respiration, I refuse to take the knowlege I learn an simply place it on a flashcar to memorize. I will use it to help those whom I must be an avocate for: my patients.
Anushka’s essay goes beyon telling us about her ambition to be a physician by escribing her journey to unerstaning avocacy in all its forms, such as her involvement in civic engagement through Youth Council. An important part of the unergrauate experience at Hopkins is participating in extracurriculars, research projects, internships, an other activities outsie of the classroom. Anushka writes how she learne to be a better avocate by immersing herself in real-worl experiences instea of just memorizing flashcars. Likewise, college is about more than acquiring acaemic knowlege—it’s also about being open to experiences that expan your worlview an iscovering something new about yourself.
