Photo: Day 1 of 10 on the Tour Du Mont Blanc, June 2019 — a story in and of itself.
"Medicine begins with storytelling. Patients tell stories to describe illness; doctors tell stories to understand it. Science tells its own story to explain diseases."
The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee
I first read Mukherjee's The Emperor of All Maladies as a freshman in high school when my uncle developed brain cancer. Emperor is a biography on cancer — how patients cope with it, how doctors treat it, and how scientists understood it throughout history. His book — knowledgeable, creative, empathetic — helped me to make sense of the disease in my own way.
Now, seven years later, my uncle has passed away, but his memory and this quotation still resonate with me. I believe medicine is the perfect crossroads between science and storytelling; it is a field where you must be both knowledgeable and compassionate.
As I pursue my own career in medicine, I hope to take these values with me throughout my future education and practice. Though I’ve come a long way, my story is just beginning.
