“You were made to be significant, your life was created on purpose for a purpose. It is time to live on purpose. In order to live a life of significance and meaning, you can no longer be passive in the face of life. I think for a lot of us that is our default setting… A lot of us in life are tempted towards passivity instead of embracing responsibility…You and I need to reject passivity and embrace responsibility for our own lives…To be able to say I have a vision or goal for life is not enough, I need to also pursue that purpose. It is not enough to have the vision or the purpose, you have to pursue that vision and pursue that purpose. You have to take action on it. The happiest people on this earth have a God-sized vision, they don’t even have to achieve it, they just have to pursue it and they are joyful.”- Father Mike Schmitz
As I listened to Father Mike Schmitz’s homily this past weekend (around three months after my trip to Uganda), I couldn’t help but relate it to my current vocational discernment. Before this fellowship, I feared that I didn’t have a clear vision of what I wanted to do after I graduate. Now, I fear that my developing vision is not big enough, it is not God-sized. I want to become a Physician Assistant in maternal and child health. However, this fellowship, particularly learning about social entrepreneurship, spending time in rural Uganda, and reading Laudato Si, has challenged me to think about why I want to become a Physician Assistant. Yes, I want to become a Physician Assistant, but it doesn’t stop there. I want my vocation to incorporate work that seeks to eliminate health disparities. In particular, I want to create a God-sized vision that seeks to eliminate the health disparity of unequal access to holistic healthcare among marginalized women and children. Being a Physician Assistant is a worthy occupation that is necessary in this world today; however, beyond working at clinics and helping patients with their immediate needs, I also wish to provide women with knowledge to know how their bodies work so that they can make decisions regarding their health on their own. This maturity of thought with regards to my vocation is important because I do not want to live my life concerned about what I am doing, but rather why I am doing it (whatever that is). When I master the “why”, I believe I will have attained what Father Mike Schmitz describes as “living a life of significance and meaning.”
Social Entrepreneurship
If poverty is the “what,” social entrepreneurship seeks to tackle the “why.” In other words, social entrepreneurship generates systemic change within a community or population by breaking the unjust social structure that leaves people poor. Health services can lighten the load downstream, but providing women with knowledge to know their bodies and a steady occupation to raise their families in healthy conditions prevents them from having to take advantage of health care services in the first place. I have caught the social entrepreneurship bug because I believe it relies on individuals, like you and me, to remain active in the face of injustices. Yes, clinical jobs are needed and worthy occupations, but social entrepreneurship adds an element of hope into the world that I have a hard time letting go of. Like Father Mike Schmitz mentioned in his homily, we must not remain passive in this life. We are responsible for creating a just world for everyone to live and thrive in. I am not sure what my involvement in social entrepreneurship will look like in the women and child health care setting; however, I know that I want to be a change maker in the health industry. At the root of social entrepreneurship is systemic change, and I believe that will be the avenue I use to achieve this God-sized vision of mine.
Uganda
In the past, I often answered the question “why do you want to go into medicine?” with some version of “The human body fascinates me, and I love working with people.” This response reflected my rather limited idea of what it means to serve a population, particularly a marginalized population in an under resourced setting. It is very apparent after my time in Uganda observing, interviewing, and interacting with women and infants in Uganda that having medical services available only goes so far. If women are not able to make decisions for their families, they will not be able to receive any medical treatment. Women at Shanti Uganda expressed that when they were able to receive services at Shanti Uganda at little to no charge, they saved money. With the money they saved, they were able to buy clothes for their babies, food for their families, and seeds for their gardens among other things. Other women expressed that that their husbands were in charge of their money and they were not able to make autonomous decisions. As a Physician Assistant, I want to pursue medicine with purpose. I want to provide medical services to my patients, but I also want to use my practice as an outlet to provide agency for women and their children.
Laudato Si
Laudato Si has taught me the importance of taking responsibility for my own actions as an act of love for my global family. The decisions we make on a daily basis ultimately affect our brothers and sisters around the world, particular those in vulnerable communities. As a part of my vocation here on Earth and as a future Physician Assistant, I do not want to become complacent with the reality of our world. In Laudato Si, Pope Francis writes, “If everything is related, then the health of a society’s institutions has consequences for the environment and the quality of human life, ‘Every violation of solidarity and civic friendships harms the environment’” (Chapter 4, section 142). With this is mind, it is my responsibility as a future medical professional to consciously care for human beings. As I care for human lives, I will also be caring for the physical environment since everything is interconnected. I am certain that if I am able to carry this task out, I will be living my vocation with purpose.
I am grateful for this opportunity to go beyond my comfort zone and take part in this fellowship. It has been nine months full of personal development and I have found joy working towards a purposeful life. I hope to never forget the ways in which this fellowship has formed me, now and forevermore.