Dooley Noted: 1/19/2017
After my morning patient, I stepped to a newsstand on my way to the lab.
My large backpack and stocky stature must have been impeding the view of a woman behind me.
Instead of asking me to step aside, she called me a “worthless piece of garbage.”
I watched as she stepped away, in her pillbox hat and mink coat.
I wondered what made this woman think that another person is a piece of garbage.
Was it her stature? Her money? Her prestige? Her upbringing?
Then I thought about from where I just came and where I was going.
In the clinic, people of all walks of life get issues that request my assistance.
In the lab, I can tell almost nothing about the background of the cadaver patients that we are dissecting.
Everyone is fascinating. And no one is garbage.
That lady catalyzed me to fight her attitude with a superdose of the opposite.
I was even kinder and more compassionate to everyone I passed.
And I intend to be that much more empathic and helpful to my students once I’m in the lab.
For, there are people in this world that think other people are garbage.
The only way to combat that is by rising up with an even stronger attitude in opposition.
After all, one lady’s trash could be another student’s or patient’s treasure.
I hope you treasure as many people as you can meet for what they can teach you.
As always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley