My Home in Tampa

When I moved to Tampa in July 2018 to start medical school, I felt very alone. Since going to college, I had lived in numerous places far from my hometown in the San Francisco Bay Area, but nothing had felt as far as Florida did. Florida was a hot and humid, foreign territory. I wasn't sure what to make of it.

One year later, I realized Tampa had become a Home to me -- yes, capital "H" -- when I returned to my apartment after a weekend in New York, which I had called my home during my pre-medical school chapter. Identifying Tampa as Home was startling news to me, but it was also a great comfort. In Tampa, I had found community, support, and safety. I had found people I cared for and a deep sense of purpose. My apartment smelled like sunscreen and was my safe harbor of courage.

An important part of my rooting in Tampa came with a ritual of frequent Friday nights and Saturday mornings on medical street runs and at a student-run clinic taking care of the local homeless population. As I spoke with our patients, many of them nomads, about where they had come from and where they now sleep, I came to appreciate what we shared: an unexpected landing in Tampa, followed by an even more unexpected connection to it.

Tampa Bay Street Medicine provides homeless individuals and refugees who live in the Tampa Bay Area with critical medical care; this fact has been well-established. But much more happens in our interactions with our patients than the delivery of healthcare services. Illuminating the tenets of humanism that enliven medicine, as we learn the stories of our patients, we come to understand how much we have in common. Indeed, the human experience is not so desperately individual. Medical students may pride themselves on ideas of eccentricity and originality, but the more I have become invested in patient care, the more I have cherished and emphasized the commonalities, normalcies, and even the banalities of our shared existence.

This year, a record number of Americans visited a food pantry for the first time as they prepared for Thanksgiving in the face of the calamitous effects of COVID-19. Home and food insecurity is an undeniable consequence of the pandemic. In contrast, as I sat down to my bountiful holiday meal, I was grateful for my health and the health of those I love. I am also deeply thankful for what I have been learning and the opportunity to care for others in a meaningful way given my role in medicine. To that end, Tampa Bay Street Medicine has played a salient role in my growth, and so I owe much gratitude to this organization, as well.

In the spirit of the season and this organization, I hope we all consider and celebrate our ability to engage with each other as 2020 comes to a close -- fewer transactions in return for more of "Have a nice day," "I like your hat," and "Here, let me help you" because through such interactions, we create Home.