This is my very first draft. It is super long.
I have many topics I want to cover and several things to say about each one.
For this draft, I threw them all in so later I can go back and edit.
It was beautiful
as it lay in my hand, despite the swelling and abnormal coloring. The
excitement within me was growing as I began to realize this was reality. I
gently rolled it around in my hands, suppressing the urge to squeal like a
little girl. I had waited so long for a moment like this; a moment experiencing
the marvels of human body hands-on.
The heart monitor
beeped occasionally in the background. The scalpel reflected light beautifully
as it lay on the tray along with various other tools. The smell of iodine
lingered in the air. I watched silently as the first incision was made and a
tiny drop of blood rolled down the skin of the patient. The laparoscopic camera
was inserted into the patient’s abdomen and I found myself feeling curiosity
and excitement. Fascinated by the complexity of the human body, I was thrilled
to experience my first look inside a living human body. It was so interesting
to watch as the surgeon navigated the small camera through the abdominal cavity
and under the liver until it came into focus; we were looking at a swollen
gallbladder. Watching the surgeon maneuver various tools inside the body to
snip the ducts and main blood vessels of the gallbladder reminded me of the
delicate motions of a ballerina. Dazed and amazed watching the gallbladder
removed via the navel, I didn’t immediately hear the nurse telling me to put on
gloves. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing; the nurse was going to let me
hold a gallbladder. She placed the warm organ into my open hand and I wanted to
jump for joy. I was actually holding an organ. I was holding an organ that had
just been removed from a living human body. An organ that only minutes before
had been part of this patient, imbedded under the liver with blood pulsing through
it. This was incredibly exciting to me and right then I knew that I wanted to
follow through and become a doctor.
The gallbladder
removal was not the first surgery I had shadowed. It was the last and, by far,
the most exciting surgery I had watched in a series of shadowing physicians.
During that shadowing adventure, I had spent about fifteen hours in observing
in the operating room shadowing two doctors, Dr. Williams, a plastic surgeon,
and Dr. Fromm, a general surgeon. I saw several different procedures ranging
from a gastric plication and breast biopsies to a tummy tuck and a nasal
lacrimal duct obstruction. I had only ever been on the patient side so it was
very thrilling for me to put on scrubs and be in the operating room during a
procedure on the physician side. I enjoyed shadowing and it only intensified my
desire to become a physician. I feel like
I learned quite a bit just from observing but they were missing one thing. I
had very little patient contact and I didn’t see any doctor-patient
interactions, which was a problem.
The problem was resolved
when I shadowed another doctor, Dr. Carson, at his private practice of internal
medicine. As I sat patiently in the waiting room, the receptionist was a busy
bee handling patients walking in the door and answering phone calls. The
receptionist asked how I wanted to practice medicine. I said I was looking into
working as a hospitalist without any practice of my own to see a wide variety
of patients every day. But as I was answering her, I realized that if I work as
a hospitalist, I probably wouldn’t see most of my patients again and I didn’t
like that. After that, I spent the majority of the day talking to the
receptionist about how the office , watching the nurse check blood pressures,
and observing Dr. Carson himself. By the time I left, my answer to the
receptionist’s question had changed. As I watched Dr. Carson interact with his
patients, I could feel how genuinely he cares for each one. He told me multiple
times how much he enjoys his job and can’t picture himself doing anything else.
My answer changed because I realized I want what he has; his own practice and a
large patient base that he cares for. I realized that when I was younger, I was
strictly focused on the academic side of medicine. Now, my focus has shifted. Instead
of losing focus of the academics behind medicine, my perspective has been
broadened to include the desire to have more patient interactions and to build
long-term relationships with patients.
With the right
focused purpose behind my desire, my other qualifications seem to fall into
place in helping to prepare me for the long, difficult path that lies ahead
before I reach my goal of being a physician. Being involved in several different things throughout my academic
career has taught me valuable lessons and developed many important
characteristics that will carry me far in life. Tutoring fellow students, being
a biology teaching assistant, gaining research experience, and performing
clarinet have all played a role in shaping who I am today.
I really enjoy the opportunity to tutor other students. I help them
understand the material on a deeper level and share valuable studying and time
management skills. Through this opportunity, I have gained insight in helping
others and developed better study habits as well. There is no greater
satisfaction than seeing a student I tutored light up with joy because they
succeeded and knowing that I played a major role in helping them reach that point. The experience of being a teaching assistant was also rewarding. It
challenged me academically and I greatly enjoyed working closely with a faculty
member. Through preparing weekly quizzes and grading assignments, I could see
how I was becoming more responsible. I feel like through being a teaching
experience I had to develop my leadership skills and be a role model to some
degree.
I was given another opportunity to work closely with a faculty member. From
now until I graduate, I am a research assistant for Dr. John Graham, a
professor at Berry College. He is interested in developmental stability and
fluctuating asymmetry. We use various strains of Drosophila melanogaster as well as a variety of environmental
stressors to affect both the genetic and environmental factors of development.
Through this opportunity, I will gain valuable research experience on a
long-term level as well as responsibility and understanding how much effort and
time goes into conducting research and publishing papers.
Some of my fondest memories of high school and college revolve around
my clarinet. I have been playing for almost nine years and out of all my other
qualifications, I feel like this one has made the biggest impact on my life. My
high school band director taught me not only to be a better musician, but also
to be better a better person. He taught me the importance of perseverance by
pushing me to practice and continually improve, highlighting the truth behind
the words practice makes perfect. I learned responsibility and dependability
because he placed me in several leadership positions that demanded nothing less
than an individual beyond capable of handling the position. He told me stories
to instill the value of integrity because it softens the heart and makes a
person kind. Last but not least, he taught me how to live life to the fullest
by having enthusiasm. These five character traits form the acronym PRIDE, the
epitome of my high school band. The things I learned through band bubbled over into
my classes and I even carried them to college. I will always carry them tucked
in my back pocket to remind me of all my band director taught me, to remind me
of the wonderful memories band has given me, and to remind me to always show
PRIDE in everything I do.
Medical school seems to be the only option for what I have been
striving for. Working hard along the way led not only to knowledge, but also to
revelations and self-improvement. The challenges and opportunities I have faced have allowed me to gain
insight into myself and be self-correcting. These values are combined with
other skills that have not been perfected but are continuing to be refined.
These skills will help me face the challenges of medical school and will be valuable later in practicing medicine. Whether it was practicing a hard piece
of music on my clarinet and not giving up until I could play it or tutoring
other students in biology, these experiences along the road of my academic
career have molded me into the person I am today by teaching me valuable
character traits like discipline, compassion, integrity, and the true value of
hard work.
Reflecting on my background, I can’t help but smile. Despite a few
bumps along the way, I am proud of what I have accomplished and can only look
forward to what lies ahead with eager eyes. Being in band opened my eyes to characteristics
I didn’t already appreciate. Berry College only contributed by emphasizing
service to others and highlighting the important balance of educating your
head, heart, and hands. I have wanted to be a doctor for as long as I can remember. As I look
back, I realize when I was younger, I wanted the high salary and the nobility
that comes with the stethoscope. I think I wanted to be a doctor because it
looked cool on TV. I was interested strictly in the science aspect of it and
this only intensified as I grew older and learned more about science. I was
considering a specialty in cardiology. But now, I can say that this has all
changed.
After experiencing first-hand what being a doctor is like through
clinical observations, I have realized medicine goes well beyond having a good
job and looking cool on TV. Primary care is about what’s behind the
stereotypical life of a doctor you see on TV. It involves a genuine passion to
help people and a desire to build long term relationships with patients so that
in the process, the physician will grow and develop as a person as well. I want
to be able to help people for any type of problem they have rather than
focusing on a certain specialty. I want to build long term relationships with
patients through my own practice of internal medicine in Georgia and I feel my
background has prepared me to do so and reach my destiny.
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