Laughter makes people better.

I had a very difficult time coming up with a name for my blog because I couldn’t find a name that I thought was appropriate. In search of my title, I decided that a quote would probably be my best bet. I read through hundreds of quotes from various places, but none of the quotes seemed to connect with me. As I was searching through famous quotes from movies, I came across this old saying: “Laughter is the best medicine.” I found this quote while reviewing quotes from the movie Patch Adams. Patch Adams is one of my favorite movies of all time because it was very inspirational. When I was younger, around 4th grade or so, I decided that I wanted to help others in my career. I thought about all of my options, but the idea that kept coming back to me was becoming a doctor. At that time in my life, I had an excellent pediatric cardiologist named Dr. Avasarala. Through the many hardships that I encountered with my heart condition, he always made me smile. He walked me through the whole process of realizing what condition I had, how to treat it, and showed me a way to cure it. I ended up getting a heart surgery called an ablation, which made my heart condition go away. From day one, he made me feel comfortable. He treated me as if I was normal 9 year old. I will never forget him because of that. This is the doctor that influenced me into wanting to become a special type of doctor: a pediatrician. Being a pediatrician has been my dream since meeting him. I didn’t see the movie Patch Adams until I was in the 6th grade. This movie not only encouraged me to want to become a doctor, but it also encouraged me to become a great doctor. I wanted to make the kids laugh like Patch did. I wanted to take an interest in my patients and really get to know them. The movie taught me not all doctors are practicing medicine for the right reason. Some doctors are just in medicine for the money. I think that this is terrible, and I believe that every doctor should have a little bit of Patch in them. As I am quite sure you know, the movie Patch Adams was based upon the story of a doctor named Hunter Patch Adams. This man lived to make people happy. He took a vested interest in his patients and helped each and every one of them with all that he could. He believed that laughter is a form of medicine. If you can make somebody smile, you can help improve their quality of life. Improving quality of life is what a doctor should do. Whether through drugs, surgery, or laughter, a doctor should always aim to achieve this goal. I chose this quote because I believe that laughter is a key essential to making people happy and healthy. Medicine is not just drugs; it is the practice of helping make people better. The more you make them laugh, the happier you’ll both be.