Mental Illness: A Personal Statement

During my later high school years I discovered how much I enjoyed chemistry’s predictability and logical structure. Balancing a chemical reaction on paper and then seeing it work in the lab made me realize that I had a love for chemistry. It was fascinating and exciting when I saw the transformation of elements into useful products. I loved learning how matter could be reduced into their building blocks, and then by putting those building blocks together in different ways new forms of matter could be created. I became both interested and challenged by chemistry during this time, and from that point on, science has been a passion.
As a junior in high school, I experienced the life of an undergraduate science major while at a five-week accelerated MD/ENG program at Vanderbilt University. During this program, I participated in pre-medical courses including, anatomy …show more content…
Now, at the time of transferring, I had several remaining unanswered questions. How would I handle loss or abuse? How would I respond to mental illness? In what way would I react to a critically ill patient? I have experienced each of these scenarios through interactions with both individuals and their families. I saw mental illness in the form of a combative, disheveled person with Schizophrenia who had to be medicated and restrained. Abuse manifested itself as a terrified rape victim covered in bruises. An unsuccessful resuscitation attempt of a cardiac arrest showed me loss. Seeing these people experiencing the worst and, in some cases, the last days of their lives increased my desire to become a physician. I was able to continue scribing despite these, at times near overwhelming, emotional challenges. The care of the patient was what really mattered in that moment, rather than my emotions. Because of these experiences, there is now no question that I am able to become a