Both Worlds: The Personal Journey from Doctor to Patient in 'When Breath Becomes Air' Ariana Crescitelli College

At one point in Paul Kalanithi’s life he somewhat let go of his love for literature and decided to commit himself one hundred percent to medicine. He had started on his path to become a neurosurgeon and to discover the answer to a question that has lingered with him since his undergraduate years: What “makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay?”(42). He wanted to find the answer that he couldn’t discover in books through experiencing meaningful relationships with the dying. This meant sacrificing his older priorities and continuing in classes required for medical school to begin his process of understanding the most complex organ in our bodies, the brain. Paul’s words throughout part one of his memoirs, When Breath Becomes Air, gives the reader an insight from his childhood ventures all the way through to his sixth year of residency. If there was one thing Kalanithi knew about life before his journey, it was that everyone is born and everyone will die.

As a medical student after two years of intense studying, he started in the labor and delivery ward where he witnessed his first birth, as well as his first death. The reality of being in charge of making such imperative “judgement calls” struck Paul during...