But a setback came to his ambition projects when he contracted malaria and almost died. Although he planned to return to America in 1830, to aid his recovery he traveled from Greece into other parts of Europe. When he arrived in Paris, he decided he would stay there a while to take more medical training. After a few months, he sailed for home arriving in Boston in April, 1831. He was now 29 years of age – and he had no clear direction for his life. His father advised that he could become wealthy by opening up his own medical practice. But Samuel Gridley Howe replied that he wanted to do more than just make money. “I want to do something no one else has done,” he said (Meltzer, 1964, p. 60).
Doing what no one else had done While seeking out
Doing what no one else had done While seeking out