Count it. Nineteen units. 10 hours moving clear solutions from tube to tube in order to crystalize the frog DGCR8 protein. 10 hours of leaps, pirouettes, battements, sashays, ala silicones, and music. 3 hours playing “kitchen”, drawing, coloring, building, reading, and playing with kids at the Venice Health Clinic. 30 hours of studying. 35 hours of sleep. 1 week. Now why do I do what I do again?
To answer this question I have to examine the past as well as the future. As a kid I was miss independent, teacher’s helper, and an extreme perfectionist. Grades three through six I chose to spend my recess in my first grade teacher’s classroom giving spelling tests and helping first graders. As for my school projects, no project could have one coloring stroke out of line without being destroyed. Time has allowed me to mature and refine my once extreme characteristics; however I am grateful for my childhood self because she is the reason I am so driven today.
Now as a college student I choose to hold a textbook instead of an alcoholic beverage. I choose to take the challenging courses because I want to gain experience and I ask questions to know answers. My passion, dedication, and perseverance as an undergraduate will only transform my dream of becoming a Pediatrician into an actual hospital setting in the future. I want to one day feel a stethoscope around my neck, smell the distinct scent of Purell hand sanitizer and see sick children for the sake of curing and nurturing each and every child back to health. This road that only a select few take until the very end is filled with trials and tribulations, yet the sleepless nights and stressful, chaotic days are worth the delayed gratification that I will one day experience. My dedication today effects where I find myself ten years from now and I want to look back as a Pediatrician and smile at my long, arduous journey.
I do what I do because the present determines the future and one minute cannot be wasted.
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