As kids, some of us played 'hide and seek', and even though it was just a game, getting caught was pretty scary -- and sometimes we would even fall down trying to escape and then get hurt. Some of us played 'doctor' and placed colorful band-aids or plasters on imaginary wounds, while we tried to look all grown up and professional with plastic stethoscopes. Some of us played 'house' and invited our parents and friends over to undersized chairs and petite tea cups as we graced them with our hospitality. Some of us wore superhero capes and paraded around the house in search of villains. But regardless of which game epitomized our childhood, we were all taught to say our 'please', 'thank you' and 'sorry', regardless of the part of the world we have grown up in. Those three magical words often were our childhood currency to get what we wanted at that point of our lives -- and our parents and elders made sure we knew the strength of that currency. And as the months turned into years and we became teenagers and subsequently adults, we began to play the adult versions of those games. Some of us became policemen and security agents who fought crime in our communities, some of us became paramedics and doctors who saved peoples' lives, and some of us became chefs and homemakers that invited people over to our restaurants and home.
But in this progression of age we call life years, we seem to have lost that magical currency that got us what we wanted, because it was often replaced by forms of visible currency. As a result, money could buy anything you wanted -- or so we were told to believe so, but not everyone had money. And in some parts of the world people had to use all the money they had to get a new home far way from their old one because there was a dangerous game of 'hide and seek' that they needed to escape from. We call these humans -- refugees. There is actually a Google Chrome extension that you can use that will replace the word "refugee" with "humans" every time it appears on your feed. Because if it's in your newsfeed, it's in the news. Too often those fleeing disaster and despair are called "queue jumpers", "boat people" or worse "illegals". It's easy to lose sight of the fact they are human. Try it and see if your lens of the world becomes less murky.
If we rewound our clocks back to our childhoods, we would all be helping them out, without the blink of an eye; from protection of human life to giving them required medical attention and most importantly by opening our homes to them -- by opening our hearts to welcome them. Because although growing old is biological, growing up is optional -- and we shouldn't be growing up if it means we lose out on the essence of being humane, but restoring these qualities we once had as kids is something that isn't a stretch away. Because we can be that person that our 5 year old selves would be proud of.
By welcoming these humans with infinite potential, humans with ideas, humans with passion -- and most importantly humans who need our help to get to where we are in life -- and have the same chance to succeed at life as we have had. I don't think I need to tell you that we wouldn't have the type of connectivity we have today if not for the son of a Syrian refugee from a few decades ago. Yes, you guessed that right -- the company that changed the world with a fruit -- Apple and the person behind it, Steve Jobs. Or that Einstein himself was a refugee before he started teaching at Princeton. This only goes to show how optimizing every opportunity helps harnesses the true capacity of human potential.
Sometimes the most unforeseen events have the biggest impact on your life.
Let me give you one such example that took place on my 18th birthday. I had the choice of celebrating my entry into adulthood with my friends, but I decided to take a trip to the middle of nowhere to volunteer at a Dental Fluorosis Outreach Project in Central Sri Lanka. At the hospital I was volunteering at as a high school student, I met a girl. As my trilingual brain discerned which language to communicate in, and as I took down the medical histories of these children, I realized that she looked different from the rest of the children I had spoken to. Her face was slightly disfigured from what seemed like a trauma injury. The nurses later told me that she was a gun-shot victim whose family had been in the crossfire of a recent attack in Sri Lanka's three decade long civil war. Unfortunately for her, her family had been relocated to a town which was a dental health time bomb; where the effect of excess fluoride in the ground water was detrimental to children her age which resulted in them being socially stigmatized and afraid to smile. She was suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and was not amenable to any type of treatment regimen. But I sat with her, held her hand, and reassured her when the treatment was done, she would look and feel better. My thoughts went back to the hours I used to spend as a child after school, when I would often be chatting away with my father's patients in the waiting room of his clinic. Only now the roles had reversed; I was the adult and the patient was the child.
She came out of the treatment room, smiling at me and said "nandri" -- which means thank you in Tamil, with an innocent smile that made me see beyond the brutal scars on her face. But I had done nothing -- I had just been human.
Six months later, when I was at World Economic Forum (WEF) 2010 in Davos, Switzerland, participating in the UNHCR's Refugee Run, I found myself reliving moments of what would have been this girl's life. This was an intensive simulation that evoked some of the deep emotional trauma of being forced to flee your home and familiar surroundings -- and becoming a refugee. In these twenty minutes, together with world leaders such as Ban Ki Moon and businessmen such as Sir Richard Branson, I experienced simulated landmine attacks, solitary confinement and rape, and negotiating between meager food rations and a doctor's visit. As a Global Changemaker who represented of Youth at this global forum, I felt a greater sense of responsibility to represent the voice of children like she. So although I had the option of plunging directly into Dentistry after high school, I decided to take the road less travelled and find answers to fundamental questions that had come out of my encounter with that young girl that June. How do healthcare professionals approach patients in conflict-ridden situations? How is humanitarian relief provided to communities amidst civil wars? What are the bargaining strategies and security dilemmas associated with providing reliable dental care to these civilians? What role do international organizations play in creating and implementing health strategies globally?
A college degree later, I knew that my meeting with that girl had sparked to an intersection in my passions of global oral health and international relations, which seems to reflect the trajectory of my life. So now, being in dental school, I know what I want to create when I graduate -- a MSF (Doctors Without Borders) for dentists, to provide dental care to regions of the globe affected by conflict. Your life story may be different to mine in terms of context or content, but we all have one to share with people this season.
As we celebrated Thanksgiving this past week, let's recall what this holiday was really about. Thanksgiving is about the Pilgrims who left Plymouth, England, on September 6, 1620 and arrived in the 'The New World'. It's about a journey that took more than two months, and the 102 passengers who braved the harsh elements of a vast storm-tossed sea. And although filled with uncertainty and peril, this land they later called home offered them both civil and religious liberty. It's about them arriving in Massachusetts in late November and signing the "Mayflower Compact" -- America's first document of civil government and the introduction to self-government. It's about knowing that as they were unprepared for the starvation and sickness of a harsh New England winter, nearly half died of them before spring. It's about acknowledging that these pilgrims or who would now be categorized as refugees, were assisted by the helpful American Native Indians who already inhabited the land this land of liberty. And it's about realizing that it was these grateful Pilgrims who then declared a three-day feast, starting on December 13, 1621, to thank God and to celebrate their safe arrival on this land of opportunity with their American Native Indian friends.
At J.K. Rowling's a 2008 Harvard Commencement Speech, she said,
If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.
During this holiday season I challenge you, in the light of the countless lives lost through modalities that we may not directly have control over as citizens, to not lose hope in humanity but to invest your energy to live and let live by giving. By giving your time to causes that matter to you, by giving your attention and sharing your assets with those who are less fortunate than you, and by sincerely and genuinely engaging in meaningful action to change the injustice around you.
fMRI scans tell us that the brain lights up the say when we the eat chocolate, make love, or when we help others. So they each seem to have a similar effect on our brain. If you think money could buy you happiness, the only caveat is that it can do so only when you spent it on others. So you can find happiness even in the darkest places by turning someone else's life around.
As we move onto Christmas, let's prioritize to share our food with soup kitchens and by preparing feast to welcome those who may not even have a home as yet. Let's be thankful to be alive, because in some parts of our planet -- even that is a luxury. Let's be grateful because having gratitude translates into neural information and an increase in hormones that keep us happy and content -- oxytocin and dopamine. But most importantly, let's take a moment to rewind history and recollect why the origin of Thanksgiving is important and eerily familiar even today, as we decide to open our borders and say welcome to some fellow humans. Remember that our ancestors may have been refugees at some point, and when in doubt always follow the soundtrack from The Lion King that may have been part of your childhood, "never take more than you give in the circle of life". So that we take this opportunity to make helpless humans feel hopeful.
I am not American, but regardless of which latitude or longitude I'm on, I enjoy and appreciate the origin and significance of Thanksgiving enough to celebrate it. Because to me it is really a celebration of humanity. So humans of America, I hope these words digest with you as you celebrate this blessed holiday with your family and loved ones, and as we approach the season of festivity with Christmas.
As my favorite medical anthropologist, Paul Farmer put it -- "The idea that some lives matter less is the root that all that is wrong with the world."
If you visit any kindergarten and observe a child exhibiting leadership potential -- you would see that other kids automatically emulate him or her in their manner and matter. These kids would set the precedents that other kids would then follow. I think it is accurate to say that you are that example in the world today in terms of power and prestige, or to put it in political science terms -- "a superpower". And capitalizing on that as human citizens to create good vibes that have a ripple effect miles away from your shores is something you owe to this country of greatness -- the country of the melting pot -- the country of amazing immigrants. As the leader of innovation, you know how much diversity in thought and creativity adds to the permutations of success that result -- so use that to your advantage. As the home to the world's most prestigious universities, you will have talent to tap right at your doorstep. So do not the let Trojan horses scare you or compromise on the bigger picture of diversity in the program that you have been coding for generations, that makes you -- you. I hope you remember that the acronym that should be taking global centre stage is TEAM -- Together Everyone Achieves More.
Because you don't need a reason to help people, and sometimes life doesn't give you lemons -- it gives you humans. And unlike lemons, we humans have an option to not be bitter with the bounties of what we have been given. Because in the larger scheme of things, humans will always remain assets and never liabilities -- and thus every human life matters. So what you do with these humans is what will define everything you stand for and who you really are.
Sarah's Next Step:
If this story resonated with you, I recommend you take a look at "Rehumanize" - a browser extension that aims to add empathy to our newsfeeds, so that the next time a picture like that of Ayan Kurdi washes on a shore and makes headlines, we are not numb to expressions that value human life. By installing it, you will find out for yourself how the Internet suddenly becomes a kinder place to be.
This post originally appeared on Dear Tomorrow Collection.
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