It was 2017. I breathed out heavily, imitating the noise of the bus as it drove down the unpaved, dirt road. My nose was flattened on the cool window, my eyes peered through the dark out at the rusty tin-roofed huts that lay beyond the comfort of my mother’s embracing arms. My parents had prepared my brothers and I for this trip…a series of ‘mature’ talks and advice. You see, my parents were medical missionaries: my dad an ophthalmologist, my mom a nurse. We had lived in Guam, Napal, Thailand, and eventually moved to Utah where a stable life was all I remembered. Now we were in Tanzania–a contrast from life back home to say the least. As daylight returned the following morning, I found myself in an unfamiliar village with lots of dark-skinned, short-curly-haired children running around in ragged clothing and carrying buckets of water above their heads. That day, my brothers and I explored the village and played soccer with the other kids our age. But we knew the real reason we were here: my dad had come to perform eye surgeries on the locals and had given us the responsibility of administering eye drops and removing eye patches. Near the end of our trip, it was time to remove the patches. One older gentleman sat down nervously with the assistance of his daughter–his apparent caretaker since his almost lifelong blindness. He was fidgety…almost scared and, I could sense his apprehensiveness. Finally, I approached him, reassured him as best a nine-year-old could do with a language barrier, and began to tug at the medical tape that fastened the patch. As I slowly removed the last piece, his eyes widened. For the first time in his adult life, he saw clearly. The world–once a dark blur–became an arrangement of vibrant colors and textures. He looked around. His eyes darted from object to object. His face melted into an amazed smile. At a young age of 9, I witnessed light in the face of darkness and the power of bringing joy to others. The powerful experiences and divergent influences on my life have shaped my understanding of success and purpose. What if there’s more than measurable outcomes, something beyond recognition...or maybe success is more multifaceted than at first glance? Not merely traditional markers but finding fulfillment in the journey, purpose in witnessing joy in others, while respecting the people who work to provide for and love others and follow their passions no matter what the world things I’ve learned that conforming to a preexisting definition of life is unnecessary for growth, rather, learning from failure and restructuring our lens for improvement. I now redefine success as a journey of using opportunities to enable us to love and support others. My experience in Nepal and Tanzania remind me of how grateful people who have little in life can be for small things and how ungrateful I often am for all of the privileges that I am given living in a developed country. I have grown to learn that helping others makes me happier, more fulfilled, and helps me to see how many blessing I overlook and how much I could use those blessings for the benefit of others, particularly in my passion for medicine and healthcare. I would like to use the opportunities I have to help people receive critical healthcare and more importantly preventative medicine to promote the mental and physical well-being of a larger population.