Please allow me this opportunity to thank you for offering me this narrative space under which my own unique biographical experience is rendered both meaningful and relevant. I suppose it would be convenient to declare my passion for medicine as the inherent outcome of my coming of age journey. The Italian philosopher, Antonio Gramsci, once declared that we are all the product of an infinity of traces, which impinge upon our consciousness. What I found powerful and compelling about this pithy observation is that we are all the manifest outcome of intersecting and overlapping forces, which shape and define our existential direction. Although I was born here to Vietnamese immigrants, my childhood can be summarized as culturally dissonant, economically challenging, and filled with the density of psychological trauma. My parents epitomized the typical immigrant experience. They worked twelve hour days in unfulfilling jobs, so that their children could have the opportunities they could only dream of. As the youngest of five children, I was often left …show more content…
Despite this profound revelation, I failed to comprehend the idea of medicine as a calling. I majored in biology, openly declared my pre-med direction, without realizing that medicine must envelop our sense of identity. All of this would change when I decided to join the UCR chapter of Flying Samaritans. The purpose of this organization is to offer healthcare, which is a universal human right, to underprivileged communities in Mexico. I remember my first trip to El Hongo. Although I was only a sophomore, I felt I was ready and prepared for what was to come. We arrived early in the morning in what was an unseasonably warm October day. There were twenty eight of us, all filled with the exuberance of youth, unbounded ambition, and the undying belief in our ability to help