Undergraduate / Life's been good to me so far; Personal Statement ;PA programs, needs 1/3 reduction [4]

The Purple

The time has come for me to help others through their dark passages. Tragedy and suffering are an integral part of the balance of life; if not preventable, they ultimately cause growth and strength. Not everyone can see the silver lining in pain. For some, pain overthrows, sickness wins. It is in these people that I see my greatest calling. I want to challenge pain and fear simultaneously. I want to be a restorer of hope.

I have always been interested in medicine. Early in life I received my first lesson in healing. In a test of endurance and sanguinity, as a rookie caregiver, I spent an entire year cleaning a bone-deep staph-infected wound on an elderly patient. We both learned to smile even facing daily defeat. Ultimately we triumphed when it closed without reinfection. A team forms between the afflicted and those who help the afflicted. Both players need to be wiling and ready to win. The daily ritual of maintaining high spirits was the key to success. It is tricky navigating the dynamics of a potentially deadly abscess in someone who already needs constant reminding that even a short life left is still worth living. Curing or treating suffering is not just prescribing a remedy; it is facilitating living life to the fullest.

Helping people has always been second nature to me; I am calm and focused during urgent episodes. I discovered this one day walking on a beach. It was my first of many ocean rescues. I heard yells for help and saw a man in distress, far from shore and caught in a rip tide. Without hesitation I grabbed a surfboard and jumped in the ocean. A few minutes later the man was clinging to the surfboard. It was not a complicated ordeal; however a man's life depended on quick and deliberate choices of the moment.

It was while still living in New York City and during 9-11 that I finally decided that I would pursue health care as an occupation. I lost my job like many New Yorkers. I donated clean socks and water at Ground Zero. A rescue worker was asked if I was a nurse, doctor or EMT. I felt helpless shaking my head. I wanted to do more. An epiphany happened. Six months later I became employed at a hospital as an EMT-trained patient care technician. Working at a teaching hospital was the catalyst that motivated me to go back to school for another degree.

While doing post-bacc work, I analyzed the roles in health care and decided the medical model is for me. After relegating money and prestige as subservience/subservient/irrelevant, I ruled out medical school and embraced physician assistant as my path. As a P.A., I intend to pursue family practice and emergency medicine in impoverished areas. When I think of the benefits of health care, what it has done for my family and friends, I am immediately saddened when I think of the millions of people who need but cannot acquire basic or adequate /any /adequate health care. When I watch the military channel I do not see battles being won, I do not see glory, I do not feel patriotic. I fixate on the eyes of the enemy and see kindred pain. I feel immense sadness. We can easily forget the enemy is human, has a family, and feels the same pain. I find it vile that our media portrays a 10 to 1 slaughter as victory. I want to go to war; to provide assistance to anyone who needs it; to help show the world that we are, and will always be, one. After I am given ample opportunity to help people, to become a healer, I hope to find a place at the frontlines of research. The chance to try many fields of medicine is irresistible. Few specialties are outside of my interest. My father, who was a vascular surgeon, always said he would be a family doctor if he could do it all over again. It took a long time before I thought about following his footsteps; partly because he died young of heart disease and partly because he flat out told me to avoid medicine. He said I should be a lawyer; we argued about that. Today, I look forward to the chance to give needed health care in poor areas and make that my primary occupation. Specializing could lead me to monitoring subjects in pharmaceutical trials or using my dexterity to harvest veins. I am excited. Without reservation, I think my father would be proud to lose the argument. My father would be excited.

My passion for science, art, traveling, surfing and playing sports has complimented my pre-medical academics by exposing me to the delights and the extremes of the human condition and enlightening me to our physical limitations. Having entered the workforce, witnessed tragedy and explored the world, I bring a certain depth of wisdom to the classroom. Having been a perpetual B minus student my first time in college, partly due to "gradeless" alternative education, I have learned the purpose of traditional education/methods and striving for excellence, even when it is not calculably not reachable. I am an older student with more experience yet I retain all my youthful curiosity and versatility which allows me to mix with a younger generation. I thrive in study groups where I can share my skills and absorb the different perspectives of other students. If I am given the chance there is no doubt that I will influence other students with my thirst for knowledge and desire to solve serious problems for my fellow man. I strongly hold the belief that we owe it to ourselves to live as long and healthfully as possible. Life is a vehicle that begs to be maintained and treated well. Give me the tools; I will scrupulously and conscientiously use them where they are needed most.