As an Indian-American, following my visit to Sankarankoil, South of India, which is my father’s place of birth almost a decade ago, astonishingly, the number of deaths in my family related to respiratory issues was overwhelming. During my visit, I also witnessed the issues children in India experience in the local schools, especially the lack of social amenities. Based on this experience, I developed an interest in my father’s hometown and hence travelled back severally and yearned to bring change in the whole village, not only in our family. Intriguingly, to help quench my thirst for a change, I managed to secure a 5-week internship during the summer at the L&T Construction Skills Institute located in Bengaluru. Where I learnt about water shortage causes, its effects and diseases caused by unsafe water; this then reminded me of my father’s village in the Southern part of India. Furthermore, the Covid-19 crisis was also an eye-opener; I contracted kidney stones due to a lack of enough drinking water and exercise; I managed to survive the disease since I was treated. However, my father contracted Covid-19, and although he recovered, it was not an easy process; as such, I immediately realized how diseases could affect and change a family and the community. I managed to get a glance at the emergency room, which changed my life. In this case, I recalled the problems people in my father’s native land were facing and the deaths in our family due to respiratory diseases. I concluded to pursue medicine with the intent of becoming a medical doctor. Noteworthy, endurance and persistence is the way to defy and resist stress for any duration; this to say that for one to pursue medicine, they need to persevere, be consistent and patient throughout the whole course.
Consequently, my endurance to succeed and that I fit perfectly for the medical career is seen throughout my studying years. Notably, I studied challenging subjects, human anatomy, calculus 1, Biology and Chemistry just to mention but a few. Despite, scoring an A in these challenging subjects not to brag but I was not contented with the results thus I re-enrolled for the classes and managed a perfect A score in human anatomy and physiology during summer. In addition to my summer classes I was lucky to work at Dr Wang’s research lab which dealt with the intent to improve Cancer treatment, I also managed to earn a spot to volunteer at the Carrollton Regional Medical Center 8 hours a week in the Intensive Care Unit. In this case, this experience gave me the clear picture as to how and what the doctors and nurses go through and how they manage to deal with critically ill patients. Also, this was a motivating experience for me which increased my urge to pursue medicine. Notably, during my stay at Carrollton Regional Medical Center I learnt that some diseases if treated earlier could be prevent and reduce the number patients in the intensive care unit since prevention is better than cure. Similarly, America and the entire world need more doctors to help salvage and provide solutions to the health issues we are experiencing thus shows am in the right path career wise.
Intriguingly, born in a family full of researchers am naturally addicted to research and as such I consider myself as a conceptualist since am good with generating and coming up with creative and productive ideas. In this case, I was part of the group that wrote an article about the application of redox on EV batteries which was published on LinkedIn. Additionally, my intent in biology has grown whereas I plan to study molecular biology, immunology and other biology related subjects. To conclude, I am a determined and focused to study medicine, not only does my academic papers show that but also my involvement in extracurricular activities especially the TAMS medical club explains my interest in medicine. Finally, am highly motivated with the medicine journey and also, I owe it to myself as an immigrant to succeed not only for myself but for all the Indian American immigrants.
