My goal is to become a compassionate physician who can make a positive impact on the health and lives of others. Coming to this decision, however, wasn’t simple; it took an introspective look at my own ideals and what I enjoy along with a lot of thinking. After 3 semesters of studying biology and 2 semesters of conducting research, I hit a point where I decided to reevaluate my life. I‘d originally started my time in college with the intention of pursuing a career in research, but I had decided that academia wasn’t the world for me. While I enjoyed my work on viral structures in the lab, it also wasn’t something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life. As you can imagine, I felt stuck and unsure of what to do with my life. I saw my peers in my biology classes, who have been sure they wanted to be vets since childhood or who loved academia, and feared that I had picked the wrong major. I still …show more content…
At the crisis center, I’ve had frustrating calls, with callers who just seem to talk in circles and give no reason to live, and I’ve times where I’ve had to tell a homeless man that there are no other resources in our area to help him. Times like broke my heart, but I was able to rely on the rest of the team for support and understanding and knowing that I had made a difference for at least one person before helped me to cope with these more difficult calls. From the Crisis Center, I’ve learned how to empathetically listen to a person’s problems and talk them through to a solution that fits them best, and I’ve learned how to care about our callers without bringing too much of the burden home with me. I felt like I’d made a difference on someone, even just by talking to them for a few minutes, and I absolutely loved that feeling. I decided that I wanted to be doing something with my life that would continue to make me feel this