Roothbert Section A In 500 words or less, write a brief autobiographical statement to tell more about your life story, your values, and your aspirations. Certainty is difficult to come by in a world defined by constant change. Nevertheless, the culmination of my educational, professional, and personal life experiences has solidified my desire to become a social worker. As a child, I had a deep and profound desire to help others who were struggling. Life experience and retrospect have illuminated that my compassion for those who are marginalized and suffering was born of the suffering my family experienced during my childhood. When I was only a year old, my father was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative …show more content…
In the culture of the United States, the objective of our caretaking is often to fix something. We want to cure illness, rehabilitate… examples? A large part of my desire to be a social worker is to fix and amend issues of injustice. This desire to fix is not inherently bad. My experience as a PCA, however, showed me that it is a desire that is incomplete. Human beings are not objects that need fixing - they are people that need to be appreciated and loved. My client showed me what it looks like to respect and honor the dignity of all human beings in a new way. Our absence of words heightened my attentiveness to the person she is beyond what she contributes to the world (which, for the record, is a whole lot of joy). I learned to revere her simply because she is. This experience is one that I will carry with me into my career as a social worker, as I learned that my interactions with my clients must involve more than ‘fixing’ their issues. Rather, I realize that what really matters is not that I do my job but how I do my job. I want to be a social worker who offers more than solutions and resources - I want to be someone who offers a deep respect and attentiveness to the inherent worth of the person standing before