A Young Doctor’s Creed

Over my short career I’ve built homes for people who have led a life of making bad choices. I’ve administered health care to street urchins in-between their drunken stupors. I’ve treated women with sexually transmitted infections dripping from their genitals, only to expect them to return from the streets time and time again.

I’ve spent time away from my family, devoting energy to healing those that will never share my compassion with another. I’ve been there, done that, and left nothing to show for it.

Today however, I did a simple thing. I stitched a man’s leg. A moderate laceration, which will soon heal without impact, yet for the first time I have left a mark on the world. I have committed a deed that will finally echo. It will resonate, and if I’m lucky, it will be heard. For this man was not only honored that I would use my skills to make him whole, but he was thankful, and he intended to share his thanks with as many of those that will listen. My actions sparked this message, and I am delighted by it. It will send an exponential message that the US is here, and we are here to help.

If the ripples of the stone I have cast die out in the surrounding waters, I fear not, for there is a pile of stones at my feet and I have been given the opportunity to throw them all.

I shall throw stones all year. Some will skip, some will sink, some ripples will cancel each other out, others will increase. Waves will form and interfere with one and another. By the time I depart, I will have left so many marks, that only time itself will smooth over the changes I will have made. And by God, whatever form that new body of water has taken, it will amount to far more than the sum of my individual actions…By the time I have left this country, I will have contributed towards its reformation, and the world will have heard me roar!

This, my friends, is a young doctor’s creed…Please share it.