During one of my interviews for medical school - not HCOM, a different one - they asked "If you could be anything, what would you be?" Being the naive individual that I was, I answered with the first thing that came into my head: "A Jedi, so I could have a lightsaber."  It sounds cute, pop-culture-y.  Childish, even.  But that answer had more depth than I consciously realized.

A lightsaber, you see, is a shield as much as it is a sword.  The safest place in a fight, in Star Wars, is directly behind a Jedi, because they can block an oncoming attack, while moving forward.

That is the kind of physician I want to be.  The kind who moves forward against an obstacle, like an illness, while also protecting and fighting on behalf of my patients, shielding them from that which would strike them down (like, perhaps, certain aspects of our healthcare system).

Maybe it's just a phase.  But for right now, what I desire to be, not just as a physician, but to a certain extent in life, as well, is the Paladin.  The one who slides in front a beleaguered friend and raises a shield to take the blow which was meant for them. Who stands and fights, so that they may have a chance to rise. Who protects, while fighting back on their behalf, until they are able to rise.  And then fighting side by side.

I desire to be a paladin.

With a lightsaber.