A FAMILY AWAY FROM HOME

My favorite memory from the trip was getting to know all my fellow brigaders. Whether it was taking vitals in the clinic, listening to our physicians’ awe-inspiring medical stories on the bus drive back to our site, or even playing Cards Against Humanity in the evenings, I loved spending (literally) every minute of the week with the amazing people I now get to call my friends. When I put my first deposit down for the trip, I knew that I would get some medical experience and gain knowledge about healthcare and medicine in different parts of the world, but I never thought it would give me a family away from home at Northeastern.

One of the infinite ways that GMB influenced with my college career was that it made me recognize the importance of knowing other languages. Interacting with the Panamanian patients and children was an amazing experience, but I found myself getting somewhat frustrated sometimes because of my inability to speak much Spanish. This made me yearn to know more Spanish, and therefore, take my first Spanish 1 class at Northeastern in the fall.

In a nutshell, going to Panama with GMB totally changed my outlook on life and the world. Even though that sounds super corny and cheesy, I can’t think of any other way to perfectly describe NUGMB’s effect on me. Being part of the founding e-board, there were a lot of hurdles we had to get over and a surplus of work we needed to do to make this first trip possible. Looking back, however, every minute of the work put into this project was completely worthwhile. I can’t wait to see how much it’s going to grow in the coming years!