I was posed this question many times before our departure, and enjoyed the chance to answer it. The questions helped to focus me and our family at the task of preparing to go. Since there were some delays in our leaving due to a delay in obtaining my NZ medical license, the questions tested our resolve to follow through. So thanks for asking, and here are the answers:
1. The chance taken to visit foreign places is the chance to grow: I have never regretted the chance to travel and the things I have learned because of them. The hardest part is the letting go. The trappings of life (job security, finances, health etc) sometimes make us forget that we are part of a beautiful planet. Those things which we hold onto take from us the big picture of the world. There are people on every corner of this planet that have already experienced or are currently experiencing the same challenges that you are. So why not go visit them, and find new answers to old problems?
2. I have watched the ending of too many Warren Miller movies: "If you don't go this year, you will only be another year older when you do!"
3. As a father, I have hopes that our children can learn and grow from this experience in ways that will strengthen them in the future. As technology shrinks our world, I hope that they will understand some of the variations in culture. If nothing else, if they end up in juvenile detention, they can always remember the great beaches. Our children are in their wonder years, and what better time to show them the wonders of the world.
4. If I practice socialized medicine for a year, will I still be sociable? Or will I become a socialite? With all the bashing that "socialized" medicine took in the recent healthcare reform debate, I wanted to experience it for myself.
5. In the fifteen years since obtaining my first medical license, I have seen the greatness and the depravity that is American healthcare. I have enjoyed working with dedicated colleagues who have given their hearts to primary medical care. I have enjoyed being a part of many medical miracles. I have been sued. I have battled my own health insurance company for medically appropriate care and lost. I have seen people bankrupted by our current system. I have arrived at a time in life where a refreshing look at my moral compass in providing medical care was needed to guide me through the rest of my career.
