School: Princeton

When I was nearing the end of middle school, my grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. At first, I did not really comprehend what that meant. I knew symptoms of the disease and had heard of it before, but I did not foresee how it would affect me and my family. Watching my grandfather’s condition … Continue reading “The Importance of Fleeting Moments and Patient Interaction”

Martha is a vibrant, witty woman. She seems a bit nervous sometimes, but she loves to chat. She is always in a common area, sassing the staff or trying to talk to other patients. When we talk to her, she jokes about her messy hair, and then she reaches up, cracks her endearing sideways smile, … Continue reading “What I Know of Life, I Learned from Death”

Serving as a hospice caretaker has been a very fulfilling yet complex journey for me. I initially joined Ascend Hospice because I wanted to learn how to communicate with my grandfather, who is slowly succumbing to Alzheimer’s. Not only have I built a deeper relationship with grandfather because of the skills I have learned through … Continue reading “Hospice Care: The Beauty in End-of-Life Care”

My time volunteering with Ascend Hospice has given me an invaluable opportunity to work on a more personal side of medicine that is difficult for premedical students to obtain. As a hospice volunteer, I have been challenged to provide comfort to patients in extremely vulnerable positions, and to understand how much grief the patient and … Continue reading “Learning to Deal with Loss”

When I first started hospice, I ended most of my visits feeling sad. It seemed like most of my patients were unhappy and felt trapped.  They complained about how they had nothing to do, wished to go outside, or wanted better food. Frequently, the patients couldn’t even hear me, so any attempts to comfort them with … Continue reading “My Hospice Experience”

Just last month, my patient turned 100 years old! I remember when I first met her, one of the first things she declared was, “I’m 99 years old!” Thinking about it brings a smile to my face. Now I think of her even when I’m not with her, I see her resemblance to the other … Continue reading “A Century Old”

Occasionally, I am afforded opportunities to experience life in new and glorious ways. These experiences can either challenge me to change my conceptions or fortify my understandings of the world. Whenever I have the opportunity to do both, I am humbled and excited to grow more. This past year, I have experienced life through a … Continue reading “Thoughts on Death: As They Remember Life”

Dear Chaplain, I felt most reflective when we sat in those Sunday circles and listened to each other. I am a private person, but the passage of the year and the solemnity of the other students heightened my comfort with sharing. Of course, your indefatigable positivity and openness certainly helped. For all these reasons, I … Continue reading “A Sunday Letter: Unexpected Things in Volunteering”

Death, with its shrouded mystery, is often anticipated to be an inherently profound experience. The call for hospice volunteers came with words like “demanding,” “emotionally complex,” and framed the experience as one where I would “help the patient navigate the process of dying.” These characterizations are not necessarily untrue of my volunteer experience. Yet more … Continue reading “Reflections on Hospice as a Lived Experience”

I originally sought out the Kindred Hospice opportunity because I wanted to learn more about death. It was foreign to me: all my other grandparents’ deaths came to me through my parents’ sad words. Both my classmates’ deaths had been sudden. I had little idea as a doctor what I would say to a patient … Continue reading “Listening”