Undergraduate / 'Helping other is my passion' - Hartwick Supplement - Describe some aspect about yourself [2]

Helping other is my passion. It may seem generic, cliché, or even obvious (who really wouldn't want to help people?), but lending a hand to someone else, especially a person who could use an extra hand, is and will always be the most important aspect of my life.

My interest to help others drove me to volunteer at a hospital. Initially it started out as a summer job that I would quit when I had enough volunteer hours and was old enough for a paying job. But this year will be my fifth year working in a hospital. My brother always says how I should really have a "real" job that will give me monetary benefits, but volunteering is much more enjoyable. Without worrying about the money I receive, I only have to concern myself with aiding others. It is a much better reward to know that I altruistically helped someone rather than a paycheck.

When I work at a hospital, I do simple but helpful task to make the patient more comfortable. I had one job called Book Cart, where I would bring a large cart containing a small library full of various books and magazines I would go to patient rooms and hand out as much reading material as the patients wanted. When I worked as a Nurse's Aid, I visited every patient on a certain floor, asked them if he or she needed anything, which would usually be some ice water or juice, and have a pleasant conversation. For working in a hospital, I may have not saved any lives or made some significant in the field of medicine (yet), but I feel accomplished in the fact that I made patients more comfortable during their stay at a hospital.

My enthusiasm to help others convinced me to become a doctor. In school I always had an interest in Biology and Chemistry, but it was working in a hospital and helping others that really inspired me to become a doctor. A hospital is the environment I would like to be in, and saving lives is probably the best way to help people.