Seeing the Significant

Areej Hassan says it is impossible to conceal the beauty of a child.

The 20-year-old junior is a volunteer at Boston’s Shriners Burns Hospital, where many children have burns over 60 percent of their bodies. Some are burned so badly they cannot walk, and yet, when a five-year-old merrily sings a Disney song or tells her a knock-knock joke, all she sees, she says, is his perfect beauty.

“You just look past the scars and bandages,” says Hassan, who often will whisper to a child: “All that matters is the beautiful person you are inside.”

The hospital, which provides free medical care to children, was founded by Masons, the fraternal organization originally formed by stone masons, masters at building a strong foundation. Like them, Hassan discovered there a solid foundation for her life. In the playroom where she works, children with severe burns and deformities taught her through their laughter and joy to rearrange her priorities and to be grateful for her life.

“I was taking a lab class and spending 50 hours a week on it. I didn’t have any contact with anyone, even my friends. I passed them in the halls and saw them in the dorm, but we didn’t talk. Then I began working at the hospital.

“Seeing children hurting and still seeing them play and be happy made me realize the lab is nothing compared to making a difference in someone’s life.

“Watching kids who are so much younger than me cope with such serious injuries, made me realize that my little stresses and all my sacrifices are so trivial. All I thought about was work.

“Being pre-med at MIT, there’s so much emphasis on grades. The kids made me focus on what’s important in life. Now I value my health. I value my family. I value all my relationships. And I’m grateful for everything.

Good medicine

“I learned from them that happiness and laughter is probably a better remedy than medicine. Some of them have such great perspectives and they’re so perceptive.”

One day, she says, a five-year-old told her: “You know something, whenever you’re feeling bad, just think about all the good things happening to you, and you’ll feel better. That’s what I do.”

“I never thought about gratitude. I took everything for granted. Now I value being at MIT. Every day, I think, wow, I’m actually at one of the best colleges in the entire world. And I’m so grateful. You get so caught up in studying, you forget.

“A child will be telling me a story or will just begin laughing while we’re playing a game. It’s those little things that makes me feel I’m making them happy. Just seeing them laugh while we play is enough for me to know I’m making a difference in their life, and I want to keep going back.

“I began to think about and prioritize what’s most important in life. I thought, do the things that make you happy. Even if you’re not making a six-figure salary, just do what’s meaningful to you and to others.

More to life

“I’m hoping I will get into medical school, but if I don’t I’ll still be happy. I never would have said that a year ago. I’m doing what I love now, and I’m happy not even getting paid.

“Working here is the best part of my life. Every time I leave, I’m skipping all the way to the subway. It’s the small things, like someone has gotten off a wheelchair and is walking or someone has gotten his bandage removed and the skin is healing. I always leave feeling incredibly great, and I feel like skipping because good things are happening to the people I really care about.

“I still have so much work, but I’ve learned there’s more to life than working all the time. When you’re a doctor, if you know every single pathway in the human body and every single cure, it’s not going to help if you can’t relate well to people.

“When I look back on my life in 40 years, I don’t want the only thing I remember to be I got an A in biology. I want it to be something I did for someone. I want to remember the people I actually cared about. I want, when I close my eyes to remember, to see the faces of these beautiful kids.”

by Liz Karagianis

On Topic: public service, students