Today I spent some time at the library, studying organic chemistry and perusing the travel section.  At the moment, I am obsessed with Montana and can't wait to visit that state and go on some hard-core exploration, which will include fly fishing skill development and nature photography (who cares if it's cliche).  However, that sort of adventure must only exist in my imagination at the moment, as I am trying to keep my GPA in a healthy zone.

As I was in the library, I started thinking about why healthcare is a field to which I am drawn, especially considering how I feel much more comfortable around artists than scientists.  I realized that briefly analyzing what is driving me in this current season of life is actually a very healthy exercise, one which I think people should do more often.  It makes this human experience meaningful and full of purpose.  Healthy reflection on why I am doing what I am doing, how I am wired, how my story is contributing to something bigger than myself, causes me to see new value in people and in life.  When I get busy and stressed out, there is something that becomes desensitized in my heart towards beauty and wonder.  That's not okay.  

As I was asking myself a few quick questions, I was remembering how on a plane back from Central America several years ago, after spending some time with an amazing doctor, I was caught up in how necessary it is to tell the stories of the people I met while there.  It was a defining moment for me that led me to study journalism and filmmaking.  That sense of responsibility hasn't left me.  There is something to be honored about what people have lived through and where this journey has brought them so far.  A good story has a living quality to it, of that I am convinced.  Two people could write the exact same paragraph, and yet you feel the words differently in both.  I believe that is hugely due to the living quality of words, and what the writer was feeling while penning the letters on a page.  Good storytellers feel the story.  They honor the story.  They realize that stories have the power to change people's lives. 

And I see how healthcare is a way to help redirect a person's story.  When a community receives education on how to make small changes to achieve better personal health, it makes the whole community better.  Simple knowledge has incredible power.  When people come to see that exercise and eating right can actually bring joy, there is something that shifts in quality of life.  I am seriously convinced of this.  One day I want to travel to the places where quality of life isn't even a part of the vocabulary because there is such poverty, and I want to see people awakened by the potential of their own story, of their own destiny.  I think that awakening comes when Love is demonstrated, and love sometimes looks like malaria pills, common vaccinations, a nutritious meal.  Sometimes that's what is needed to give someone the sense of, "I have a chance in this life" a chance to have a story that marks history.  

There is so little that makes sense to me about life, and maybe that is just specific to the season I'm in right now.  But those things that I found myself reflecting on today show me that there is a wiring to who God made me to be that goes beyond coursework or a major in college or having a "plan" for my life.  There are certain things that drive me, regardless of what "job" I find myself doing or what place I find myself living, and when I pay attention to those things, I see a bit more clearly what my part is to play.