The pattern is simple. One born in the Kabul province of Afghanistan will grow up a Sunni Muslim. A boy from the heart of Israel becomes a devout Jew. A Southern Protestant can’t remember a time without Tuesday night youth group. Latin American niños partake in their first communion. Swirling tales of Vishnu and Brahma from youth anchored a woman in Hinduism. An 18 year-old Idahoan leaves for a Mormon mission in Texas. But what happens when the child chooses another path?..
One late meeting with our resident debate genius exposed me to policy debate, where fitting thirty minutes of speaking into eight is the norm and literally anything will lead to nuclear war. At this point, no other debaters participated in this style. My partner and I foraged into this wonderful world alone and came back amply rewarded with cerebral treasures. Throughout the tournaments, we deliberated on the anthropocentrism of human existence, critiqued space travel through a feminist lens, and examined the validity of Malthus’s theory of population. Victories came sweet, but the real triumph was becoming policy captain at the end of my junior year...
Ever since I was young, I wanted to help people. Growing up in middle-class America has granted me countless opportunities which demand repayment. I was born in a university medical school hospital, where subsequently I took after my father in desiring to be a doctor. After all, what better gift could be given than health?..
Lying motionless, my body tensed up as I could hear the careful, yet quick unwrapping of needles. A sweet older Chinese woman in a physician's coat methodically shuffled through the dim room. The supposedly soothing oriental music of bamboo flutes and wind-like percussion only heightened my pulse. An uneasy rush of panic engulfed my body. "Don't worry; you won't feel a thing," Dr. Lily offered. "One, two, three."..
One evening in 2008, I decided what I want to do with my life. Ambitious, I know, but I have always been quite headstrong.Like all other Sunday evenings, I was watching 60 Minutes with my dad--our tradition for over a decade-- when a segment on the Innocence Project flashed on. It flabbergasted me to see innocent people wrongly convicted of felonies...
When you open your eyes and realize that you are in a clinic, have passed out in a patient’s lap, fallen on a patient, and broken your phone, you may feel tempted to go home and call it quits. I found the experience of passing out to be truly remarkable—one doesn’t even really remember it happening! The team of doctors I was shadowing, however, and the patient upon whom I descended, probably do...
In the 17 years of my life, I have learned more than just the Krebs Cycle and Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence formula. I have learned to not pull a cat’s tail.
When I was four years old, I decided to embark on a crazy adventure. I decided I would pull my cat’s tail. Armed with a hanger and intense curiosity, I approached my cat, Leo, who was sitting innocently on the windowsill, completely oblivious to his fate. His yellow striped tail swung tauntingly. I debated. Would I return to my dad in the living room, or would I pull my cat’s tail, sparking a full-fledged war? I declared war. Leo won...
For Boston College: Ever since I was 4 I was fascinated with becoming one of three things: a pediatrician, a dentist, or the First Women President of Color, which were three different occupations that my little brain thought were interesting. As I grew older my dream of changing history forever and cleaning people’s teeth died out but the fascination with becoming a pediatrician never did--- at least until eleventh grade...
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