I often find myself disgusted with society and the way the world is...and I sometimes wish I could just leave it all behind and disappear.

 Just a few days ago, I was feeling like that again while sitting on my couch and staring at the TV when this add for an organization called "Operation Smile" came on. This group consists of healthcare professionals who travel to the poorer parts of the globe and perform surgery on kids with cleft lips/pallate deformities - free of charge. They were showing the stories of several kids, their life with the deformity and the whole process of changing it.

Then they got to a Vietnamese boy named Thanh. Thanh was 9 years old with a cleft lip. He had trouble eating, drinking and talking because of it. He was ridiculed and outcasted his entire life because of it. He was excited to go to school on his first day, but when he got there all the kids made fun of him - his mom said he ran home and cried and he's never been back to school since...Basically, his life was being stripped of him and its due to something he had no control over.

Thanh was selected by operation smile and in only about an hour they corrected his lip, and changed his entire life....Here are his before and after photos http://www.operationsmile.org/testimonials/thanh/

His story really touched me. It also got me thinking... I'm currently a pre-pharm student, I had always thought about switching to med, but after watching that show I think I will switch to med and become a doctor. I would absolutely LOVE working with Operation smile or Doctors without borders or any other similar organization. The thought that I could one day help and change a kid like Thanh's life for the better is so exciting! That would be so fulfilling and rewarding, It would be my dream job!!!

Here is another kid's story http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHwf6qv5i5g  btw, I'm sure that most of us can relate to these kids in a way. Speaking for myself, as someone with social anxiety, I often feel like a caged bird, limited from reaching my full potential in life due to anxiety. Its the same, only their S.A. is a cleft lip and my "cleft lip" is S.A. You know what I mean? Imagine if someone took 1 hour and corrected my anxiety, freeing me from the cage thus changing my life...Amazing.

So yeah, sitting there on that couch it was like someone hit me in the face with a bat. First of all, its nice knowing there are people out there willing to volunteer their time to help these poor kids out. My faith in humanity has been restored. And second, I think this is it! This is exactly what I want to do with my life!