Hello everyone, I got back from India last week. I spent the last 6 weeks in a hill station in the mountains studying how medicine is impacted by the environment and getting certified as a wilderness first responder. I learned a lot about the different cultures there as well as a lot about myself.
On the trip, I spent a lot of time exploring the mountains and town. One of the things I will take away from this trip is the ability to adapt when something I planned doesn’t go as I wanted it. When I was not in classes, I would try to fill the remainder of my days with any activity I could. On a lot of the hikes we did not plan our path or end goal, we would simply walk to a place we had a rough understanding of. This was a very new experience for me and it really taught me that I do not need to plan everything, sometimes less planning is better.
Besides what I learned about myself, I learned a lot about medicine. I had the opportunity to shadow at a community hospital in town. I realized how fortunate we are in the US to have all the resources we do. I take for granted the countless gloves I go through everyday at the hospital and seeing the people there without the same ability really shocked me. Also, they used a mercury blood pressure cuff compared to the air pressure gauge one that we use here. It surprised me that they were using something that is almost banned here for being unsafe. I also learned a lot during my classes there. During the wilderness survival classes, I learned how to work with what I have on me and how to communicate with other people when in a high stress environment.
Overall, this experience is one I will never forget. I met so many interesting people with crazy life stories. I learned a lot about myself and my career goals.
