"La Vida es Una Escuela"

During the last three years, I've thought a lot about why I chose to attend Dartmouth, and I think I've realized above all else I knew it was a place I could challenge myself to grow. The D-plan forces each student to think of themselves as an individual. It creates a sense of possibility and future opportunity that can only be your own. I knew that if I attended Dartmouth I would leave my wonderful home in Austin and create new friendships apart from my elementary best friends. I knew that sometime during my time at Dartmouth I would experience things absolutely unexplored before. Such independence was always an integral part of my plan for my time in college.

Along the way, I fell in love with Spanish, geography, helping others, and travel. Now I find myself living in the Amazon region and for the coming months I am working at the Rio Beni Health Project in Rurrenabaque, Bolivia. An internship working in primary health care, at first seemed like a bit of a misfit for my government major. However, working with this foundation I cannot imagine a more incredible experience to transfer to my academic tract. The Rio Beni Clinic through its status as a non-governmental organization works to fulfill the Bolivian government's promise of the right to health by providing access to health care regardless of economic status. Each day I feel like I'm learning so much, sometimes during my afternoon chats about Bolivian politics with Modesto, a former political science professor, or observations of treatment by Alan, the executive doctor, or learning new dichos During meals with Ins, a recent medical graduate, I almost feel like I'm back at Dartmouth taking courses in Comparative Politics, Infectious Disease and Spanish. Instead though I'm living it.

"La vida es una escuela" (Life is a school), Ins shared with me over lunch a couple of weeks back. Here living on my own I don't know if there has ever been a more appropriate time to apply the phrase. During the week, I am constantly learning and surprising myself. On the weekends, I always plan an adventure like wandering through the Sunday open air market, attending a Bolivian circus, hiking local rails, or going on jungle excursions. I feel so fortunate to be living independently and I am absolutely certain that I will take away exactly what I need from these three months in South America. The thing that I chose Dartmouth most for: growth and development of inner strength and peace and the confidence in my own ability to create a fresh life anywhere in the world with the opportunity to wake up everyday ready for a new lesson.

--Madeline Baird '12, Austin, Texas