Last, but most influential, is my experience shadowing a pediatric neurosurgeon. Observing him in surgery, feet away from the operating table, getting the chance to scrub in to a few procedures, speaking with the variety of roles surrounding him, accompany him to interdisciplinary meetings, and  pre- and post- op rounds where I got to witness the way he interacted with medical students, patients, families and staff fortified the goals I have for myself and confirmed that there is a place that exemplifies the values and preferences most dear to me.

Dr. G approached his operations with care, community, calm, measuredness, self-regulation, making light and respectful requests, building camaraderie that was light-hearted but not distracted. It was always intentional and functional, just like the motions in his procedures. It created a lived, real sense of protected dignity, respect, equity — creating faith for optimism, in every individual near him. Whether it was the janitor, a co-operating attending, a charge nurse, a secretary, a nurse on a floor he did not frequent  - he knew everyone’s name, communicated with them in the way they needed but paramountly and inevitably left effects of faith, calm and confidence in the future.

I want to work hard to become a surgeon with the type and caliber of excellent technical skill possessed by Dr. G, as well as the become the person of humility, bravery, and big-hearted generosity that pursuing the road pediatric neurosurgery, in part, has made him become.