Although I grew up in the small town of Koloa on Kauai and went barefoot to school until the eighth grade, I knew I wanted to practice medicine from an early age. My mother was a nurse in a rural plantation clinic, and I used to hang out there after school when I was young. Because many of the young doctors staffing the clinic were transplants from the Mainland, my mother would often invite them over for dinner. It was growing up in that stimulating setting that sparked my desire to become a physician.