My first weeks were a crash course in shutting up, listening hard, and helping where I was actually useful. And I was constantly outside my comfort zone—that was exactly the point. I was working in a place designed to be a zone of peace for people who have to live their lives outside of comfort every single day. The first time I stepped into the forest where sex work was happening—under tarps, in tents—I was intimidated. Early on, I was in spaces with people going through intense substance use struggles or medical issues related to transition that I’d never seen before. My second week, I did an intake for a trans girl my age, living on the street after fleeing her hometown when she was almost killed in a hate crime. It was heavy. It was terrifying. And I had to be professional. The turning point came on mobile clinic visits. Walking muddy paths, sharing tea out of paper cups, talking about life instead of “health”—that’s where walls fell. I learned that in medicine, credibility comes from respect, consistency, and showing up for the right reasons.
My first weeks were a crash course in shutting up, listening hard, and helping where I was actually useful. I was constantly outside my comfort zone, and that was exactly the point. I was working in a place designed to be a zone of peace for people who have had to live outside their comfort zone every single day. The second week, I did intake for a trans girl who had almost been killed in a hate crime. It was heavy and terrifying. The turning point came on mobile clinic visits as I walked muddy paths and shared tea in paper cups, talking about life instead of health - that was where the walls fell. I learned that in medicine, credibility comes from respect, consistency, and showing up for the right reasons.