The reason why

In less than two days' time, I will have less than five minutes to tell a complete stranger why I want to be a doctor. Why do I want to study medicine?

How do I encapsulate the past ten years in a <5 minute speech?

Sifting through all my past thoughts to somehow put this in order.

Why do you want to study medicine?

Medicine sans Frontiers. Doctors without Borders.

I keep forgetting, but that is how it all started.

This is when everything started.

Isn't it strange that a third of the world's population could live in comfort, while the rest of the world suffers from poverty, dies from starvation and diseases that are curable in the first world? 

To be able to travel to places in the world and provide aid where I can, with what the knowledge and training I've accumulated, to deliver the best possible care I can.

We always say Australia is the lucky country. But how many of us truly appreciate it? I recognise it, but I don't think I really truly, from the bottom of my heart appreciate it, because I've always only lived in places similar. But in other parts of the world, people cower, they hide and they live in constant fear of losing their lives.

The more I learn about the human body, the more fascinated and humbled I am by it's intricacies and extreme delicacy. So many things can go wrong. An egg needs to be fertilised at exactly the right time, then it needs to embed itself into the wall of the uterus and grow and grow and grow to become an embryo, fetus then baby. For a life to simply be, so much needs to align and so many processes in the body carried out to perfection.

Life is so precious.

Being a doctor, it's not just a job. It's a part of your life. Doctors interact with people at the most profound and intimate level. When a person comes to a doctor asking for help, they are placing all their trust in the doctor. Trusting that the doctor will listen to them, help them, support them and ease their pain and suffering. And that is such a honour and privilege, something to be so thankful and grateful of. 

Of the mentors and teachers you've had. Of the people who have given their bodies to science so we students can have access to the most invaluable teaching. Of the lives that have been extinguished in our pursuit of new drugs, in the medical experiments we've carried out to improve our understanding and knowledge. Of the people who have supported you through this journey. Of the patients who have generously allowed you to learn from their bodies.

In Dr. Abraham Verghese's words, "I will always, always, always be there. I will see you through this. I will never abandon you. I will be with you to the end."