A Begun Journey

In exactly a week, I will be on the plane heading for Seoul, Korea. My grandfather has been battling for almost over a year, with a deadly disease called lung cancer. He has been my mentor all my childhood years, taking me out to the sea to teach me how to fish, telling me his most memorable life stories, but most importantly, loving me with a heart of a father.

Last summer, I actually had stayed at the hospital for a month, taking care of him day and night. I was devastated when the doctor told me the cancer has spread to other parts in the body, and that there aren't much that they could do. Although the experience gave me the opportunity to spend time with grandpa once more before I went back to the states, the more I saw his hand become weaker and thinner, the more my heart ached with pain because I knew that there was nothing much I could do. I just held his hands tightly and with tears, I prayed for him.

Then I realized, that my grandpa is just one of the millions of people struck with a disease, and I am not the only one who cried for someone I love. However, out of those millions, the majority are struck by treatable diseases of which their vaccines have been invented more than half a century ago. But the striking fact is that it is those people in third world countries, who suffer the most and often succumb to death at early ages.

It is not fair that one's quality of life is heavily determined by one's origin of birth. Those who are reading this post right now probably have the opportunity to receive medical attentions and inoculations. But not everyone is born with such perquisites. I believe that our utmost attention should be given to those who are bereft of even basic rights: the right to consume safe food and clean water, and the right to receive healthcare. I had never realized that such basic rights were actually privileges in many parts of the world. I was sheltered from such inequity and was blind to the injustices that were being overlooked in the society.

I believe healthcare as a human right, not as a privilege. It is not fair that people like me get to receive all the vaccinations and medical care I need but those living in the third world becoming victims of curable diseases. I want to dive into places where medical care is most needed, and that is why I made the decision to serve in Ghana this summer after my visit in Korea. I want to see and experience myself the reality that I have been vicariously doing through books and documentaries. In the future, I believe that I will have always remembered to look back at Summer of 2012 and said, "that changed my life more than anything."