What is your favorite word and why?
Sankalpa.
Translation: Determination.
When I visited my dad's hometown over the summer before seventh grade, it reminded me of how much I really cared about service to the common man. When I entered the small town in Jaleshwar-10 in a rickshaw, a three-wheeled means of transport, I noticed that the lean and poor rickshaw-puller had caught the flu virus.
I asked my dad out of curiosity, "Where's the free public hospital?"
"It's a mile away," my dad replied. "And it's not free."
I stared at him with disbelief as several questions flooded my brain. What if there was an emergency condition? What if a life was lost simply because the treatment was unaffordable?
That was when I knew I wanted to be a doctor and save money to establish a free public hospital in my poor town. But in ninth grade, I realized that biology is very difficult.
"It takes a lot of hard-work to become a doctor. Will I be able to do that?" I hesitantly asked my dad in Nepali, my mother-tongue.
"Kunai kaam ma dil ra dimag rakhyo bhane je pani sambhav hunchha. Ani khane mukhlai junga le chhek daina," my dad replied.
Translation: Anything is possible if you put your heart and mind into it. Plus, a moustache cannot obstruct a morsel of food.
So, I decided to stay determined. And if it weren't for the sankalpa, I would never be where I am today; a step closer to my attainable dream.
Sankalpa.
Translation: Determination.
When I visited my dad's hometown over the summer before seventh grade, it reminded me of how much I really cared about service to the common man. When I entered the small town in Jaleshwar-10 in a rickshaw, a three-wheeled means of transport, I noticed that the lean and poor rickshaw-puller had caught the flu virus.
I asked my dad out of curiosity, "Where's the free public hospital?"
"It's a mile away," my dad replied. "And it's not free."
I stared at him with disbelief as several questions flooded my brain. What if there was an emergency condition? What if a life was lost simply because the treatment was unaffordable?
That was when I knew I wanted to be a doctor and save money to establish a free public hospital in my poor town. But in ninth grade, I realized that biology is very difficult.
"It takes a lot of hard-work to become a doctor. Will I be able to do that?" I hesitantly asked my dad in Nepali, my mother-tongue.
"Kunai kaam ma dil ra dimag rakhyo bhane je pani sambhav hunchha. Ani khane mukhlai junga le chhek daina," my dad replied.
Translation: Anything is possible if you put your heart and mind into it. Plus, a moustache cannot obstruct a morsel of food.
So, I decided to stay determined. And if it weren't for the sankalpa, I would never be where I am today; a step closer to my attainable dream.