Monthly Archives: September 2011

Sep22

Relentless Passion and a Challenge

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How far are you willing to go to chase after your passions? How long are you willing to blindly follow your heart? Is there a limit to this? Should there be?

Far to often people set limits to their own passions and put a threshold on how far they will go to fulfill their dreams. I am lucky enough to have no debts, no dependents, and a job that will give me (barely) enough financial support to travel on a shoestring budget to live by the rules of what I am now calling humanitarian vagabonding. We all know that the term “vagabond” has been used to describe those dirty traveling hippies with giant backpacks with almost as many pockets as their cargo pants. But vagabonding is much more than simply escaping society. To me, it is about taking that leap to dedicate your life to people all over the world. And that is exactly what I want to do.

My biggest inspiration has always come from people and hearing their stories. I was a microbiology major at UCLA and as much as I love viruses, bacteria, and most of all parasites, I only love them because of their unfortunate effect on people and sadly their profound effect on people in the developing world. So my official education was complemented by a long list of activities and extracurriculars that allowed me to be with people and to listen to their stories. The activity that holds the place closest to my heart is my involvement in GlobeMed.  GlobeMed is a grassroots student organization that connects university students with community-based organizations working for better health all over the world.  Students are given the leadership and educational training to provide resources to these organizations while gaining cross-cultural experience working towards the common goal of achieving equitable health care for all. I had the serendipitous and life-changing opportunity to work with our partner, the Amuru Youth Center, in Northern Uganda. There, I found a life-long love for Uganda, a Ugandan man named Justine, and the exploration of my own limits and risks in pursuit of passion.

I will touch on all of this later, but my point is this: when you find something that you are passionate about, that makes you come alive, you need to pursue. You NEED to pursue it. My mother has always said that you only have one heart and me being only 22 years old, I am too young to break it. My father has told me that I am too young to be sitting at work wishing it was already time to leave.  As I write this, I have a choice between the stability of a good, full-time job in Los Angeles that I am not exactly passionate about, or the unpredictability of following my heart to Uganda. This blog will be about me trying to take my own advice and make the right choice, despite this terrifying economy.

I’m going to end this first blog post with a personal challenge. I challenge myself to follow my heart and to promise to let it take me wherever my passion may lead. But, the real challenge is that wherever I go, I will start something good. Some project or some event that brings joy and a better quality of life to the people I have yet to fall in love with. It may be big or small, but I promise to do it. It is these singular acts of courage, passion, and solidarity that will leave the world a little more connected and a little more equitable.