My Personal Statement

There are three main factors that collectively directed me towards a career in medicine. The first would be my experience with my mother. I grew up in a Nigerian American household, one that not only gave me the freedom to discover what interested me and to explore those interests, but also exposed me to key aspects of Nigerian culture. My mother especially sought to install in my siblings and I, a keen appreciation for the clothes, food and cultural norms of Nigeria. Unlike many of the African parents of my friends however, my parents had a more American perspective on raising children and believed that their children should decide for themselves what career they wanted to follow. Despite my family’s openness and acceptance of American

Growing up my father was a typical African dad; he had us follow strict conservative rules but was also kind and compassionate. Throughout my childhood, my father’s health was never really a concern. However, all that changed when I was in high school. I remember waking up to my mom calling out for help. I ran to the door of my parent’s room but the sight that greeted me left me paralyzed at the entrance of the door. My father was experiencing a seizure and he was on the floor just shaking and convulsing. All I could do was cry, and scream, I had never felt so useless in my life. My mom kept a level head and contacted emergency services. They came and they stabilized my father and took him to the hospital. This experience was one of the most traumatic things that I have ever faced. However, to me it is also the most comforting. The feeling of relief that I experienced when we were told by medical professionals that my father would be okay was stronger than the relief I had felt when my mom comforted me. I realized that from this experience that God really did use other humans and people to comfort and heal others. The whole experience was also strange in the sense that my father and those in our extended family did not have a history of seizures. The doctors themselves were unable to diagnose the cause of my dad’s condition. Although, I had felt a strong sense of comfort from knowing that my father would be okay, I was still a little uneasy because the medical professionals where unable to determine why my father had experienced that seizure. This experience taught me that there is comfort in knowing the prognosis and cause of a medical ailment. When I look back on this experience, I am once again struck by how it appears that God uses medical professionals and non-medical professionals in the process of saving a life. From my mother, who made the emergency call, to the EMT personal that