Last night, Patrice and Tyler had us write about one of the inspiring people we met on this trip. I wrote about Dr. Wilkens who we met earlier in the week. I thought I would share it with you.
This man keeps going to school to learn new skills he needs to support his community. He doesn't stop growing and planning how to make the impossible possible.
He went into the police force with the desire to help and when the internal politics/corruption confronted him he did not just say, "this is my job so I have to compromise my principles." He instead sought a new vocation. This took many years of training to become a doctor and a surgeon.
He followed in his mother's footsteps of service to others, opening a clinic to support the neighborhood he grew up in. While managing the clinic, he developed plans to expand and realized the many business skills that would be useful in that endeavor, so he is getting his MBA.
Service can ripple through a community, influencing countless intended and unintended people. He has helped cure diseases and injuries that might otherwise have gone untreated, he has referred people to other services, he helps run his mother's feeding program and serves as a role model of a professional, compassionate, hard working man.
He embodies many of the principles that I believe and sometimes (and sometimes not) live:
1) Education is a lifelong process.
2) Doing the easiest thing is not necessarily the most fulfilling.
3)Service to others can be a way find deep meaning in your life.
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