Why I Do What I Do

[Ali Haghighi]

I am one of twenty-six thousand, two hundred eighty-two UCLA undergraduate students. What makes me more than just another digit in that overwhelming statistic? For starters, my name is Ali Haghighi. I am a first year neuroscience major with a course load that could be considered more than slightly intimidating by anyone with a weak stomach. So why would I subject myself to such immeasurable pain and suffering when I could at the same time be living the good life by blowing off all these responsibilities? I choose to do what I do because I want, or rather need to be more than just another number. I spend countless hours studying and slaving over chemistry and calculus textbooks in order to achieve a greater purpose – in order to eventually reach a stage in my life where I will be able to look deep into the eyes of helpless relatives and provide them with the assuring words that their loved ones are going to be ok. In short, I do what I do in hopes of one day, hopefully in the relatively near future, becoming a cardiothoracic surgeon and possessing the ability to save countless lives and preventing unnecessary grief and sorrow from striking the hearts of innocent bystanders.However, for the time being, I am still only eighteen years old and a student at one of the most prestigious and social universities in the nation, if not the world. Taking this into consideration and in an effort to prevent myself from losing every last ounce of my sanity I have found several very effective outlets for my stresses. My two saviors are table tennis, or as many like to call it, ping-pong, and the college phenomenon known as Thirsty Thursdays. Although ping-pong may seem like a trivial activity, there is nothing more effective when it comes to relieving stress than completely demolishing a little white ball with a wooden paddle. And as for Thirsty Thursdays – what more is there to say?