Prologue

I do not have the classic story of why I ended up a doctor. There was no sick family member whose sickness made me determined to help the ailing, nor there was a teacher who inspired me to enter the field of medicine. In fact, I never even thought about going into medicine until my parents pushed me into it. If you know Middle Eastern families you know that they raise their kids to become either doctors or engineers. Mine insisted that I go to medical school.

Flash forward twenty six years, and here I am practicing medicine as a kidney specialist in the northwestern part of the United States. Years passed as if the only mission was to be become a doctor, raise a family and live better. Somewhere along the line I missed the main reason of why I became who I became. I do practice compassion with my patients but something there is missing. Something about me is missing.

Along came the Syrian conflict which complicated life for many Syrians in the past three years. Suddenly, my home country became the epicenter of a major humanitarian disaster. The daily news became unbearable and now there are more than six million Syrians internally or externally displaced. I did as much as I can to help but many did way more. Life sometimes pulls us in many directions at the same time and until last year I had many obligations that pulled me away. This year is different. This year has to be the year of Syria.

When I was making reservations two months ago for the kids spring break vacation, a friend of mine posted a link to the March medical mission to the Syrian refugees of Jordan. It was as if the time of the mission was tailored to my schedule. It was my calling! I reached out to the various leaders of the mission and signed up. I wanted to help as much as I can. I wanted to see for myself the suffering of my country men and women. I also wanted to see if I can open a small dialysis unit to help provide free dialysis to some of the Syrian refugees.

Today, I am searching for myself. I am looking for my destiny and for the reason I became a doctor. I want to help the unfortunates, from Syria and from other places in the world. May be this is why I went to medical school after all, not only to improve my life but to improve others.