The painting on the wall was blue. Adorned with whorls of metallic-gold paint swimming in a river of indigo and midnight, the painting seemed to shift as I gazed at it from the acupuncture bed. I had suffered a concussion and other injuries from a car accident, and I was at my lowest as I trudged up the arduous hill of recovery. After spending weeks cut off from my friends, school, sports, and hobbies, I felt adrift and powerless. As one who thrives off of a lifestyle full of constant movement and activity, the monotony of recovery felt stifling, and I had lost a sense of purpose. When I looked at that painting, however, I began to reflect on the past weeks, and I realized just how easily I had let myself yield to the situation in which I was thrown. As I gazed at the simple yet elegant pattern, I realized that I had allowed myself to cave into self-pity rather than find beauty within my circumstance. It was this painting that pushed me to close the chapter of depression within my recovery and realize that there were countless blessings hidden within my adversity. It was this painting that shepherded me to start my Painting the Patient Experience initiative. Inspired to share the light with others that the painting had brought to me, I spent the next months using the extra time afforded by my academic and swimming limitations to collaborate with hospital administration and begin my project. I realized that if a single painting could help me so much during a time of darkness, it could undoubtedly impact others during their own difficult times. The purpose of the project was to study the effects of art on patient stress and anxiety to prove that hospitals should integrate art more heavily into their framework. Following months of collecting qualitative and quantitative pre-data, painting and installing ceiling tiles with relaxing images above hospital beds, collecting more data, analyzing, and culminating the results into a written work, my project was complete. Each day I was in the unit, a new patient told me a story about how the painting impacted them. Some patients suffered great anxiety leading up to their surgery and found a personal connection with the painting that eased their tension. Some patients looked to the painting as a means of escape. Some imagined themselves interacting with the scenery as they became bored, anxious, or restless. It seemed that nearly every patient found a personal way to connect with the image and used it to find peace in an anxiety-inducing environment. Even the nurses in the unit reported that the paintings boosted the overall unit morale. When the project finished, I realized that I did not want to stop at proving its success. This year, I am working to initiate a program where new tiles can consistently be painted and installed across the hospital. My goal is to one day fill every unit with paintings to provide each patient with a special touch to make their day better during a stressful time, as the painting on the wall had done for me. My experience running the project opened my eyes to the workings of healthcare beyond those gleaned by shadowing alone, and I felt in tune with myself while interacting with patients and working with the data I collected. With my personal history with healthcare and rehabilitation, I hope to pursue a career in medicine and am ambitious to utilize my future institution's resources to help accomplish my goal.