By Diem Pham, Founding Partner, ROAMcare
What’s the most significant day of your life?
That is the favorite conversational question of my father’s. Growing up I have heard many responses, all of them preceded by a long pause. I could see the brains racing through the events of the years to pick that life changing one, noteworthy and profound enough to share. There are many to choose from, too numerous to sort through at the time as if the silence was too long to wait. Almost everyone answers my father’s question with a milestone: graduation, wedding, birth of a child, death of a parent, or an event that has profoundly affected them such as an end of a war or 9/11. They then explain in detail how that changed the course of their lives. I can see their faces soften and their eyes twinkle as they recall that moment.
We are undoubtedly shaped by the circumstances and people around us, directly and indirectly. Sometimes we have input in the outcome and sometimes choices are made for us. In our work as caregivers and gatekeepers of medicinal treatments, we are given great trust to dispense hope as we dispense the remedies to alleviate pain and disease. We are held in high esteem by the patient as healers.
Imagine that someone’s most significant day is the day that person received a lifesaving treatment that you facilitated! Every interaction you have is an opportunity to make a difference on somebody’s life, and that ripple extends to their circle of influence of family members and friends. What if that person, in their despair to cling onto another day of life, offered you a glimpse of how good you have it despite all your problems? Your setbacks seemed miniscule given your luck of good health and meaningful work. You don’t have to count down the days to the most feared, unexpected, unplanned end.
So… What is the most significant day of your life?
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