For nearly 9 months I had the pleasure of working for the V.A. Hospital atop the city of Portland. Even having worked for years in different pharmacies already, I had no idea what I was getting into. I could not believe the receptiveness of the patients. Maybe it was because many of the men were Vietnam vets would had no one left in their lives. It was rewarding to feel like I was giving back to those who served our country. It was also pleasant to hear a thank you here and there which is more than I had received by working in communities where every prescription to most patients was provided free to the patient by state aid. It is a constant challenge working a tireless and mostly thankless job, even more so since I happen to be a very giving person. It was a long nine months, working sometimes an exhausting amount of hours and usually waking up much earlier than the sun, but I learned so much. I will always value the time I spent working at the V.A. and hopefully one day I will have the chance again.
When I didn’t have to commute by the bus-train-bus route to
the Vancouver campus, I would walk down the hill from my rented house to OHSU,
the university hospital, and walk across the skybridge to get to the VA
hospital. The pedestrian bridge happens to be the longest suspended skybridge
in North America at a length of 660 feet. Here are a few of my views from the
sky bridge:
