Eleanor Roosevelt put it best when she said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Sadly, I was too young to take this quote to heart at age seven, when I let someone make me feel inferior...with my consent. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sick, very sick. I had been for days. I remember waking up to the doctor standing over me. I remember beginning to count his overwhelming nose hairs. I remember how mean he was to me. I remember beginning to cry. I remember watching the blood rise in the syringe. I remember the doctor asking me, “How bad do you v'eel on a scale of v'one to ten?” I remember punching him in the face and then saying fifteen. Only kidding, I would never do that. I remember the doctor telling me I would be riding in an ambulance. “Why?” I asked him. “V'your vehytrated,” he responded. “V'im...I mean, I'm dehydrated? Can't I just go drink a glass of water? Mom?" Sadly, my mom couldn't help me and the un-sympathic doctor shook his head and left to call an ambulance. He left me, a seven year old at the time, sitting on the examination table crying.
People say, “Oh, you'll laugh about it in ten years!” It's been seven and I'm still not cracking a smile. The horrible doctor taught me four things that very day. One, for the love of all that is holy, do not let your nose hairs get out of hand. It's all someone notices. Two, that I wanted to be a pediatrician. Three, never do something you don't enjoy, for by making yourself miserable, you're making others miserable too. And four, do not let someone make you feel inferior without your consent.
Many people think that if you're unhappy with what you do, that it's okay, and that it's your decision. However, if you're unhappy, more than likely you're making someone else unhappy too, and that is not okay. When you're in a field which deals with people, you should be joyful in what you do! When I walked into the doctors office that day I didn't need a jerk to make me feel even worse; I needed a sympathetic doctor that had my best interest at heart. I am not wise, and I don't claim to be, but one of the greatest lessons that I think everyone should learn is that the absolute worst memories can teach you some of the greatest things. The doctor that day had no idea how he impacted my life for the good, and from that day forward, no one has made me feel inferior without my consent.
