Sometimes I have to validate my reasons for doing the Peace Corps and not going directly into medical school, but then I realize it's the best decision I've ever made. I'm a better person for it and have turned into the adult I've always wanted to be. Ramón y Cajal, the father of modern neurobiology, said this and it says what I can't eloquently about why I did the Peace Corps:
THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF SEEKING INSPIRATION IN NATURE
We may learn a great deal from books, but we learn much more from the contemplation of nature - the reason and occasion for all books. The direct examination of phenomena has an indescribably disturbing and leavening effect on our mental inertia - a certain exciting and revitalizing quality altogether absent, or barely perceptible, in even the most faithful copies and descriptions of reality.
All of us have probably observed that when we attempt to verify a fact presented by a writer, unexpected results invariably emerge, suggesting ideas and plans of action not aroused by the mere act of reading. In our view, this is due to an inability of the human word to paint exactly and faithfully. In any branch of knowledge one may wish to mention, reality presents a surface of highly varied and complex sensations. Symbolic expression always arises through abstraction and simplification, and can only reflect a small part of reality.
No matter how objective and simple it may appear, all description relies on personal interpretation - the author's own point of view. It is well-known that man projects his personality onto everything, and that when he believes he is photographing the outside world he is often observing and depicting himself.
From another perspective, observation provides the empirical data used to form our conclusions, and also arouses certain emotions for which there are simply no substitutes - enthusiasm, surprise, and pleasure, which are compelling forces behind constructive imagination. Emotion kindles the spark that ignites cerebral machinery, whose glow is required for the shaping of intuition and reasonable hypotheses.
...
"Life seems to be pure mechanism. Living bodies are hydraulic machines that are so perfect they can repair the damage caused by the force of the torrent moving them, and even produce other similar hydraulic machines through the reproduction." I am absolutely convinced that the vivid impression caused by this direct observation of life's internal machinery was one of the deciding factors in my inclination to biological research.
THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF SEEKING INSPIRATION IN NATURE
We may learn a great deal from books, but we learn much more from the contemplation of nature - the reason and occasion for all books. The direct examination of phenomena has an indescribably disturbing and leavening effect on our mental inertia - a certain exciting and revitalizing quality altogether absent, or barely perceptible, in even the most faithful copies and descriptions of reality.
All of us have probably observed that when we attempt to verify a fact presented by a writer, unexpected results invariably emerge, suggesting ideas and plans of action not aroused by the mere act of reading. In our view, this is due to an inability of the human word to paint exactly and faithfully. In any branch of knowledge one may wish to mention, reality presents a surface of highly varied and complex sensations. Symbolic expression always arises through abstraction and simplification, and can only reflect a small part of reality.
No matter how objective and simple it may appear, all description relies on personal interpretation - the author's own point of view. It is well-known that man projects his personality onto everything, and that when he believes he is photographing the outside world he is often observing and depicting himself.
From another perspective, observation provides the empirical data used to form our conclusions, and also arouses certain emotions for which there are simply no substitutes - enthusiasm, surprise, and pleasure, which are compelling forces behind constructive imagination. Emotion kindles the spark that ignites cerebral machinery, whose glow is required for the shaping of intuition and reasonable hypotheses.
...
"Life seems to be pure mechanism. Living bodies are hydraulic machines that are so perfect they can repair the damage caused by the force of the torrent moving them, and even produce other similar hydraulic machines through the reproduction." I am absolutely convinced that the vivid impression caused by this direct observation of life's internal machinery was one of the deciding factors in my inclination to biological research.
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