My mother is accident-prone. She prides herself on being a smart woman yet is terrified of escalators and can’t figure out how to walk upstairs without falling down them. She’s broken her leg four different times, in four different areas, all the way up her leg. The doctors just gave us two sets of crutches and a boot to keep at home so my mom can stop coming to them. I love my clumsy mother since if it wasn’t for her (and flights of stairs) I would have never gotten a good look at medicine and the medical community. I would have never realized how much I enjoyed it, well I wouldn’t enjoy patients like my mom but nonetheless, it showed me something about myself I never knew. The biggest goal I have for the future is to be a surgeon. I have come up with 3 main reasons why being a surgeon is a great career choice for me. The first reason we will touch on is my deep love for biology, then we will fly on to reason number two which is being financially well off and not worrying about money. We will lastly talk about what I think is the most important reason, making a difference in the world and in people's lives.

First off, I’ve had a huge interest in biology since I was a kid. It started out as a small interest but grew over time. My mom was in the hospital a lot, she has CRPS which is a nerve disease that causes her to be in significant pain all day. She has had multiple surgeries to help make her life more livable. From spending time with her in the hospital and talking to the doctors I became extremely interested in their job and I was really thankful for what they were doing but after my mom was able to “get better” I never thought about it after that. It became more apparent in 7th grade. I had life science and it was the best class I’ve ever taken. I enjoyed everything about learning about cells, genetics, and the characteristics of living things. I can honestly say that I never studied for that class yet still aced every test because I loved learning about it all so much. The summer after 7th grade I wanted to learn more. I hated how I was given a simplified version of biology, so I did some learning on my own. I’m hoping to take AP biology next year in 10th grade so I can take my first real year of bio. I hope taking college classes will help me get into a medical school and get scholarships to help with the immense student loans.

Secondly, being a surgeon enables me to be financially well off and gives me opportunities I never have had before. I love going to school. I love learning new things and I have very weird hobbies. All of those things are costly. Something I have been scared of all my life is student loans. My mother went through college fully 2 times and her student loans are stacked high. She doesn’t have a set income since she really doesn’t have a job so she struggles with debt and gives a huge amount of money to the government just to get by. I don’t want that to happen to me, being a surgeon helps with that immensely. Sure I would start out with loans that are hard to pay but once I get the ball rolling with my job it will become less of an issue. A bigger issue I’ve thought about is supporting my family financially and giving them a good life. If I have kids I want them to have a good life, I want my mom to experience something good with the little bit of life she has. I don’t want the people I love to struggle with things they shouldn’t, my children shouldn’t have to worry about money or what they are limited to and my mother and father shouldn’t have to worry about all their bills or fixing up our horrible house. I want them all to be happy. As much as this is important to me there is still one more thing that can top it slightly, making a difference in this world.

At last, my starting point wasn’t my love for biology nor was it all the money I would get. I want to help people in any way I can. I want to make people feel better and I want to make their families know that their loved one is safe, and won’t have to deal with the troubles that are affecting them physically. Most of all I want to help children like me whose parents went through something horrible which has changed their lives completely. I remember back when I was a kid and my mother was in the hospital how scared I felt. That fear turned into depression and I became so sad I felt numb. I honestly thought I would lose my mom forever either physically or mentally and as a little kid, that was a lot to handle. Something that helped me so much was seeing her get better. My mother and I wouldn’t have gotten better if it wasn’t for her doctor and surgeon. She could have died and I would have been left with no one I felt comfortable with talking to. I know there are more children like me who have gone through that same fear, same worry. I want to give those kids hope and to give them their parents back. Mental health is the same as physical, no matter what this world says we should care for both.

The biggest goal I have for the future is to be a surgeon. I talked about three main reasons why I want to do this. My love for biology, being financially stable, and making a difference in someone's life. This means so much to me. This is all I want to do with my life and it’s something that has resonated with me for so long, yes things can change but I don’t think this is one of them. I never thought I would end up wanting to do this. For a while, I wanted to be in criminal justice just like how my mom was. She was a probation officer and would give out papers in some scary places. She would bring my brother in a stroller to these bad areas and would just hand out papers with him. They had great fun handing out restraining orders and child support papers in downtown Saint paul! She changed her career after I was born and became a hairdresser before she got hurt and developed a nerve disorder. Her dream was to work in the FBI as a behavioral analyst. She always talks about it in a sad way, so I wanted to complete her dream. In the end, it just wasn’t the right path for me and my mother supports me in every way (Especially how much I will make).  If it wasn’t for my clumsy mom and for her hurting herself way too much I might have never seen this side of myself. Thank you, mama (and escalators).