Laughter is the best medicine

I haven't laughed really hard in the a long long time. Until Dr. Kwok, our kidney specialist taught us today. He has a heavy chinese accent and as a bonus, he also tries to make a lot of jokes. Thank goodness we have profs with a sense of humour that can keep us attentive in class. I can recall back to my first day in med school. We had to circle on the card a characteristic which we most valued in our colleagues as future physicians. I was looking through all of them and there were all the typical ones including compassion, trustworthiness, sincerity, team player etc. But I had my eye on something that was more important to me than anything else. And that was humour. Life is absolutely dry without laughter and you lose all motivation and enthusiasm to keep going without it. To be able to make someone laugh, I think transcends all other characteristics that are all generally accepted to be important in a physician colleague. To be able to make someone truly laugh, is the best way to impress on someone else that you are genuine, trustworthy and considerate. You're essentially making yourself vulnerable to try to bring some joy into someone else's life. And I think that certainly takes more effort than simply being kind and considerate to a colleague or patient. Of course, I am probably totally wrong to say that humour is this important. But I'm going to choose to advocate for something most people overlook. I'm always actively trying to make people smile :)