Our Question: Who has been your greatest influence in your life and what effect has this person(s) had on your post-collegiate goals? Feel free to address broad issues or specific topics, real world stories are welcome.

I vividly recall the day your frail and knobbly hands tightly gripped round my timid twelve-year-old ones as you leaned against me, coughing and staggering in a struggle to reach the bathroom at the end of the hall. You upset me then as you cursed aloud because I had not offered to grab your earnest hands quickly enough. Little did I know, however, that moment would be the last time I would have the pleasure of being so near to you. Yet I want you to know that although we may be far apart, my beloved grandfather, you serve as the burning inspiration that lights my path in darkness and fuels my eagerness for the power to save a life.

My grandfather passed away eight years ago due to lung cancer. Thus, it would appear that this story of mine is interwoven with pain, yet it is also knit together by patches of bitterness and anger and it is this resentment that works to encourage me to pursue my dreams of becoming a physician. It is natural to feel mixed emotions upon the death of a loved one. In my case, my grandfather’s death symbolized the shattering of the security of my world as he was the first person I loved dearly to have passed away. With his death, I had shockingly realized that my family was now incomplete and would remain so.

However, it is not the fact that my grandfather is gone that saddens me, but it is how he is forever lost that angers me. The most influential man in my life passed away at the hands of foolish doctors in an underprivileged nation who appeared to care less for their patients. They disgustingly refused to offer proper services to him until they had cash in their pockets. I further recall my aunt sadly remembering how the hospital nurse had refused to change his filthy bed sheets because they “did not have any more sheets left.” However, after the nurse had left the room, my aunt had torn clean bed sheets from the empty bed next to him for his use. It was that corrupt treatment of an ill man that frustrated me and so questions had begun to fume through my mind: Why is it that the life of a person is evaluated based on their financial standing? Why is it that the power to save someone’s life is hindered by merely pennies? Moreover, being halfway around the world at the time, I had felt powerless and I decided then that to gain the ability to save a life, I needed to become a doctor myself. I then set my mind on proving to myself and ultimately to my grandfather that his doctor did not represent the true humanity that is a doctor. I think my grandfather would now be pleased to know that I will begin Medical School in two months time to secretly atone for someone else’s thoughtlessness.

This desire to become a physician has led me to meeting wonderful people from all walks of life and my thanks always returns to my grandfather. My fragile memories of the man who had spoiled me as a child may have faded over the years, but my memory of that particular day as I helped him through the hall always drifts out from the corners of my mind and I am again reminded as to why I am driven to pursue a higher education and become a physician – for the sake of a dear grandfather who changed my life forever.