Life Goal: Meet Paul Farmer...Check

One thing I just love about college is the incredible amount of unhindered freedom, of which I will probably never feel again. Although I was too enthusiastic about returning to school, Monday ended up being an incredibly wonderful day that included a somewhat impromptu trip to Charlottesville to see one of my heroes, Dr. Paul Farmer (of Partners in Health, as well as subject of the book Mountains beyond Mountains and also the recipient of the MacArthur "Genius Grant," to name a few)speak at UVA. Farmer is the foremost expert in the subject of Global Public Health. His work is extensive and he is singlehandedly revolutionizing the world as we know it. Since meeting Bono is a bit out of the question, this is literally the next best choice.

His talk was incredible. Erin, Dani, and I got there early and were the starry eyed girls in the front row, deeply absorbing every word he spoke. I took three pages of notes, and I wish I had taken more. He talked about poverty, AIDS, community health organization, discovery, development and delivery, inaction, sustainability, and the effects and costs of prevention vs. care. We learned about the desperate need to rebuild the public sector and what will happen if we do not. He spoke for almost two hours and I left encouraged and inspired.

Its hard not to put a man like this on a pedestal. It was a phenomenal experience that was well worth skipping my science class and 24 for.

In his words, we must all work towards "the basic standard of decency that goes with being human."