Prelude to the RM in Uruguay: a Hithhicker’s Guide to Charles-Antoine.
What’s this ? A blog post ?
Probably that means I am finally doing something with my life !
Yes, good news: I will be attending IFMSA’s 2016 Regional Meeting (RM) for the Americas this January in Uruguay, and you will be in the know of this fantastic event’s highlights ! Bad news: my reporting style is random at best, and those highlights will be coloured by my inadequacy to go straight to the point, exposing you to spontaneous musings, anecdotes or rants from my time in Uruguay. Doing this thing might even be fun ! God forbid.
But then, time constraints. I am leaving in just a couple days, and have negotiated my leave from the medicine faculty with a share of my brain (they now own a tiny area between the hippocampus and the fusiform gyrus). In other words, I must dispense with a lot of med school cramming before I leave ! So without further ado, I will provide this ABC of Charles-Antoine Barbeau-Meunier (fun fact: my name is longer than the alphabet, so actually an ABC isn’t enough).
Who am I ?
A first year med student of Université de Sherbrooke, co-president of a cohort of loveable obsessive compulsive students (granted I am no exception for the OCD part), and local coordinator of IFMSA’s Global Health Committee on campus. Social determinants of health, environmental health, neuroscience, thunderstorms and squirrels, those are a few of my favourite things.
What are my objectives for the 2016 RM in Uruguay ?
Bullet point form, that would look like:
1. Makes friends with Central/South Americans ! Expand my moral circle ! It’s ridiculous how many great opportunities we miss by the sheer fact that we are not friends with people of different backgrounds. First-hand experience with diversity is key to empathy, curiosity and, plainly, making stuff happen. How will these encounters shape me ? Awesome three-dimensional colour shapes !
2. Learn about global and public health issues that relate to territories I am not familiar with. All of the territory below North America —> not familiar with.
3. Develop my skills in leadership and advocacy. Because yes, one day, I hope to take this experience further than blog posts.
4. Steal a couple local recipes, artists’ names and good movie titles so I can expand my cultural horizons after I get back from this experience. (Let’s just pretend internet disposes of no such information).
5. Corrupt at least a few people into coming to visit me after I get back to home.
Now, the countdown is up: 75 hours until I set foot in sunny Montevideo. Looking forward to sharing this experience with you all !
Au plaisir,
Charles-Antoine Barbeau-Meunier