Ritz Cracker Research Paper

My mother would say that my dream to become a doctor all started because she forgot to leave out Ritz Crackers for me. I was 3 years old, my brother 4 and about to start Kindergarten. We lived in Corona, an overcrowded immigrant neighborhood in Northern Queens, and the local school had no space available for my brother. So my mother was sent to Fresh Meadows, a neighborhood 30 minutes away on public bus, to try to find an open seat for my brother. It was easier to handle one toddler over two on public transport and as a single mother, with no money to pay for a sitter, my mother would sometimes leave me alone in the apartment while I slept. In case I woke before she returned, she would leave out a plate of Ritz Crackers which, according to …show more content…
At my middle school, all sixth grade classes were held on the 5th floor, and as a chubby asthmatic kid, climbing up and down those stairs was a grueling exercise for me. In one particular incident after the first day of gym, I was wheezing like a chain smoker by the time the last bell rang. No kid wants their friends to see them in that state, so I hid my asthma attack the best I could until I could find my brother. By this time, we were living in Astoria, close to Mt. Sinai Hospital’s Queens branch. My brother realized what was happening with just one look, and carried me on piggy back to Mt Sinai 3 blocks away. I don’t remember what hurt more that day, my chest because I couldn’t breath, or the embarrassment I felt at being carried by piggy back to the hospital in front of my friends. Asthma made me realize that medicine often times is about managing symptoms and not cures. That, along with my experience at the ER disillusioned me about being a doctor. My visits to the ER were always long, not because my treatment took a particularly long time, but because the waiting between check ups and paperwork always took forever. Being a doctor, it seemed, was more about paperwork and insurance than actually treating the