Her son is standing behind me to my right as I wait with his mother to find out what spot to leave her in. She looks up at me while also scanning the room and asks, “Is this where they do it?” “Yes,” I answer, feeling the acceptance that this may be the last place – and I might be the last face – she ever sees. Surgery is always a tough thing to go through, especially when you’re not sure of the outcome. Fear of the unknown: that is what this woman was experiencing. There was nothing I could do to quell that fear. I was helpless. The only thing I could utter before leaving for the next patient was “Good luck. Everything will be fine.” I never saw her again. I don’t even know if she survived the operation. This story has a beginning but no end.
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Two people meet, greet, talk, and leave. These borders may be hazy, the whole process may only last for five minutes, but conversations end with both people parting ways with the knowledge that their paths are to diverge. I experienced a lot of that during my time working with patient transport. I would meet people at the most difficult times in their lives, and, for a moment, I was their person. I had to take care of them, and they trusted me to transport them to wherever they were going. Although I admit it was not a very important job, it allowed me to make connections with people I would normally never see or talk to in daily life. I believe that the more connections that I can make with others, the better off I will be because, put simply, empathy is a basic human emotion that seems to be slowly dying off. Our innovations in technology have isolated us and have eliminated the need for face-to-face contact or reading other peoples’ emotions. We no longer meet someone and connect with them face-to-face; technology is constantly distracting us, whether it is our phones or computers. That’s why these minor conversations I had with the patients were so meaningful since they allowed me to connect with others on a more personal level. I was meeting them at a painful time, and there were no outside distractions - simply two people talking about sports, the weather, or any other menial thing - and just being
Two people meet, greet, talk, and leave. These borders may be hazy, the whole process may only last for five minutes, but conversations end with both people parting ways with the knowledge that their paths are to diverge. I experienced a lot of that during my time working with patient transport. I would meet people at the most difficult times in their lives, and, for a moment, I was their person. I had to take care of them, and they trusted me to transport them to wherever they were going. Although I admit it was not a very important job, it allowed me to make connections with people I would normally never see or talk to in daily life. I believe that the more connections that I can make with others, the better off I will be because, put simply, empathy is a basic human emotion that seems to be slowly dying off. Our innovations in technology have isolated us and have eliminated the need for face-to-face contact or reading other peoples’ emotions. We no longer meet someone and connect with them face-to-face; technology is constantly distracting us, whether it is our phones or computers. That’s why these minor conversations I had with the patients were so meaningful since they allowed me to connect with others on a more personal level. I was meeting them at a painful time, and there were no outside distractions - simply two people talking about sports, the weather, or any other menial thing - and just being