My Last Free Summer

I can’t speak Spanish very well. I can’t do much medically either (at least not yet!), but I still decided to spend my last free summer traveling to Antigua, Guatemala with nine of my classmates. A week after finishing my first year, I spent most of my time trying to figure out what to stuff into my over-sized duffel bag. With probably way more than I actually needed, I handed off the 49.5 lb bag (yes, the weight limit is 50 lbs) to the guys in blue at Lambert airport and boarded the first plane towards Guatemala. The month long trip is broken up into two parts-learning Spanish for the first two weeks, and volunteering in clinics and schools for the second. I look forward to having an entire month to get to know the culture of Guatemala, exploring the lifestyle, learning the language, and seeing how medicine is practiced. My hope is that challenging myself and testing my comforts, will help me to serve my patients in the future by opening my eyes to a brand new world.