Samyukta Mullangi, Scientific American

Since the first day of medical school, I was in breathless anticipation of my third year. I came to Harvard with a background in creative writing and the big draw of medicine for me lay in its compendium of human stories.

In college, I volunteered at local hospitals where my primary responsibility was to go knock on patients’ doors and keep them company for a little while. This was awesome. Few things delighted me as much as entering a patient’s room, seating myself in the armchair by her bed, and over the next hour, unearthing those unfrequented histories that made up her life. Hospitalized for what seemed like interminable, lonely days, patients appreciated the close attention of an interested stranger, even for a little while. In turn, their stories made me appreciate the breadth of human experience—their joys, tragedies, relationships and transformations that co-exist in society. full article