The Struggle With Alzheimer's Analysis

Mahatma Gandhi proclaims, “the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”. Until I witnessed this marvel firsthand, this enigmatic truth was nothing more than an incessant, indefinable sermon expounding upon the seemingly intangible virtues of volunteering. This attitude prevailed until I was introduced to Henry. My introduction to Henry was rather peculiar, to say the least. Its oddity derived from the circumstance of my introduction rather than its context. To this day, I have never met Henry, nor will I ever. However, I have met plenty of like individuals.
Who is this Henry, then? Henry is the living, breathing embodiment of the very nature of the Music and Memory Program, a symbol of hope in a diagnosis replete with inevitable hopelessness. My band peers and I “met” Henry by listening to his battle with Alzheimer’s disease and his enlivening experience with music. Almost instantaneously, the previously mundane classroom setting erupted with an ambiance of unification. Henry not only demonstrated to us the enlivening force of music but a newfound concept of community. Henry’s story correlated a face with the horror of Alzheimer’s disease. In him, we saw our community and felt
Rummaging through an endless mound of negativity, we, a small group of naïve adolescents, found temporary means of lessening the gravity of an intense situation. Because of this, the most infinitesimal of events, such as the offbeat clapping of a patient’s hands to the oldies, are the most beautiful. In witnessing the unceasing intensity of dementia firsthand, I felt personally compelled to dedicate my life to the combatting of this horrid disease in becoming a neurologist. Through what seemed as merely a small dedication of my time, I discovered the person I aspire to be, a clarity I personally deem invaluable, deeming the extolled virtues of volunteering indefinitely