life-changing experience at HLD

My experience with HLD was a life-changing one, especially since it was my first time going to a third-world country. My first week was a medical rotation. We went into operating rooms to observe how surgeons work and emergency rooms to learn about doing clinical histories and diagnosing. At one point, the hospital had a black out. It was the first time that it has happened in the hospital. I was surprised by how the surgeons stayed calm and reacted quickly by turning on a flashlight. Numerous patients came in and I was able to see and analyse many different cases. This part of the trip reinforced my dream of becoming a doctor. I would recommend the pre-med program for everyone because it is truly inspiring. The tour part was also amazing, especially the hot spring and tubing. The volunteer part of the trip was what impacted me the most. It was so different from my expectations. Before the trip, I expected people in misery in the town destroyed by a major earthquake. Yes, the town was pretty worn down. However, people were willing to work their hardest to reconstruct the town. The people of the community, even kids, helped to build the foundations for the containers. I was tired by the work, but I got my energy from the people working as hard as they could. Even after their hard work, they always had smiles on their faces which was incredible. I felt guilty feeling sad because of small matters back at home, while the people of Jama enjoyed everything they did even after their town was destroyed. This part of the trip made me realize that I should live my life with a positive mind because I am extremely lucky to be living in a first-world country. I also realized that helping others gives me extreme happiness, which caused me to set a new life goal: to become a doctor and travel to third-world country to help less fortunate people.