In July of 2017, I spent nine days at the National Student Leadership Conference for Health and Medicine at Northwestern Univeristy in Chicago. This camp was important to me for a multitude of reasons. One, it was the longest I had ever spent away from home without my family. My family and I drove five hours from our house to the university. When I arrived, I was greeted by overly excited camp guides. The other students there already seemed to know each other and I felt anxious. I didn’t think I was going to make friends, and I didn’t want my family to leave. I wanted to climb back in the car and drive right back to my house. However, my parents reassured me that I would be fine and then they left me to my own defenses. I waited alone in my room for the official camp activities to start.

Finally, it was time for the first activity: meeting my small group, a group of about sixteen campers lead by one of the camp guides. My name tag indicated that I was in the group lead by Hana. I searched in the crowd until I saw a girl resembling Kim Kardashian holding a sign that read “Hana.” I walked over and gathered with the other nervous campers in my group. We played one of those ice breaker games and I decided that my group seemed alright. Hana assured us that we would be like a family by the end of camp. I seriously doubted this.

The next morning, the first activity of camp was a series of team building exercises. Almost like magic, my team began to click. We went through each activity, working together to do the best we could. While playing a game in which we had to pass a ball to each member of the group as fast as we could, we discovered that we were all competitive. We kept asking our instructor if we could try again, sure that we could achieve an even faster time than the last. Then we came to the spider web. There was a huge web made from string and two trees. Our mission: pass every member through the spider web without using the same hole twice and without touching the string. We accepted the challenge with eagerness. We passed the first few members through the lower holes successfully. Then we started to hit the strings, and our instructor decided we must face a penalty. He asked, “Who is up for a challenge?” I raised my hand. “Okay Madison, you have to do the rest of the challenge with your eyes closed.” I accepted the challenge and closed my eyes. My team had not lifted me through the spider web yet, so I had to trust them. I couldn’t see anything as a bunch of people I had met the day before lifted me through the higher strings. As a passed from one side to the other, I dropped down and feared I would fall. Instead of feeling the thud of the ground, I felt the safe hands of my group members. My team had did it and I had trusted them.

After the team building exercises, we all quickly came to love each other. We were all so different, yet we came together beautifully. One group member lived in Las Vegas and could play many different instruments. Another member was from Oman, and had lived in 8 countries throughout his life. However, we all had one similar passion: we were interested in the medical field. We passionately talked about why we wanted to go into medicine and what type of doctors we wanted to be. We explored a hospital in Chicago and learned how to dissect cow eyes, a sheep heart, and a sheep brain. We heard from a multitude of speakers and learned what it would take to get into medical school. We worked together on a project discussing the high suicidal rate of high schoolers in Cleveland and we practiced diagnosing patients, with the camp guides playing our patients. We explored the little area around Northwestern University, which included Insomnia Cookies.

Throughout this camp, I learned a lot about the medical field. I heard from doctors and learned how much work it would take to be accepted into medical school. During all the activities, I felt my passion for medicine growing. In talking with my group mates, their passions inspired me. I began to see medical school and a career as a doctor as a tangible thing, not just a dream I was having. Through my group mates, I saw that the world was much bigger than the small town and the small school I was from. I saw that every single person has a unique perspective of the world, and it made me desire to know more people.

By the end of camp, I did not want to leave. I loved my group and we really did feel like a family, much to my surprise. I came into the camp afraid and interested in medicine. I left with the knowledge that the world was a big, beautiful place that I need to explore. I learned that it is important to talk from people and learn from their experiences. Everyone in my group had such different experiences, and these differences helped us accomplish tasks. I also left with a stronger desire to become a doctor. I had a taste of what the field was like, and I wanted more. This camp was a unique experience in my life and I am happy that I stepped out of my comfort zone to do it.