| It's only a matter of time before we must | | | | of study to pass the premedical sciences. If I |
| succumb to our ailing bodies and drag ourselves to | | | | were to walk away from college with only the |
| the doctor. Careers in healthcare are going to last | | | | knowledge of a textbook in my bank of |
| as long as there are people living to their next | | | | experience, it would be hard to honestly say |
| birthday. Certainly, the field of medicine has | | | | medicine is for me. |
| changed as patients become more and more | | | | Countless hours were spent at the local hospital, |
| dissatisfied that their physicians are people that | | | | volunteering in multiple capacities. While attending |
| make mistakes too. The glory days of medicine | | | | school full time, I would spend my evenings in |
| are over, but for those who love serving their | | | | radiology, wound care or the emergency |
| community and watching people overcome their | | | | department building interpersonal relationships and |
| illness, there is no better field. | | | | giving of my time freely. Volunteering and keeping |
| Of course, that is how I see it. When I was a | | | | up with my studies, I used my spare time to |
| young boy, I would often play with my siblings at | | | | bring in some money performing research in a |
| my grandparents' home. Hide and seek was | | | | chemistry laboratory. Now that was busy! |
| common and I often used the basement to find | | | | Upon graduating from my undergraduate |
| refuge from the seeker. Ironically, at the top of | | | | institution, Brigham Young University, I gained |
| the basement stairs on one of the old wooden | | | | employment at the hospital in the emergency |
| steps was a tall asparagus jar filled with fluid and | | | | department. I work full time as a technician gaining |
| a floating frog. It always seemed weird to think | | | | valuable experience and insight into medicine and |
| that the frog just remained suspended there for | | | | modern healthcare. The process of taking the |
| years, peering out at all the passerbys. I chuckled | | | | Medical Collage Admission Test (MCAT), applying |
| when I found out my father had bought it when | | | | to various MD/DO programs, and interviewing has |
| he was a young boy, but was too afraid to | | | | been an intense exercise. When that letter of |
| dissect the amphibian. It did not take too long to | | | | acceptance finally arrived in my mailbox, a sigh of |
| find a book on dissection or the appropriate tools | | | | relief could not only be heard, but felt too. At |
| to perform the operation. | | | | least until the matriculation process and classwork |
| Talk about instant success. I was so enthralled by | | | | starts. |
| the experience that I chose to pursue medicine | | | | It comes down to following your greatest |
| as a future profession. Almost twenty years | | | | ambitions and not letting anything get in the way |
| later, here I am, on the verge of entering medical | | | | of what it is your really want in life. Don't let |
| school to achieve one of my greatest goals. | | | | somebody else tell you what you can and cannot |
| Certainly the task was not little as it took years | | | | do, that includes the admissions committees. |