Why I Want to Study at Medical School - Personal Statement Example

To anyone with a South Asian cultural background, the means to become wealthy and stable while being respected at the same time is by being a doctor. Choosing a career other than medicine is frowned upon. I myself had a personal experience of defying my parents’ wish to become a doctor because in my own opinion, being a doctor can be very tiring, and it is actually not a very lucrative career itself. Also, in my days studying the American culture, everyone keeps saying that there is no point of working or having a job that does not make me happy for the rest of my life.

And I believed that with all my heart, that doing something else would make me both happy and rich. Because of such dreams of grandeur I took a liking to engineer and business courses, thinking that one day I might strike gold and become rich and famous like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet. However, my dreams of becoming rich and famous by being a businessman or an engineer came to an end when I realized that I had no sure way of achieving those goals. I just accepted the fact that I had too many selfish hopes and high dreams with unrealistic expectations.

As I went through high school, I happened to discover that my strengths actually lie in my interest in the field of biology, especially of the human body. My interest in the human body was greatly influenced by my father, a well-respected physician. As a child, I could remember him talking about the cases that he worked on, and even bringing me to the hospital to get close to the action. My efforts to defy what my parents wish for failed, as I realized that what they push me to do was actually my personal calling.

My decision to volunteer at a hospital and a walk-in clinic solidified my choice of becoming a doctor, especially the unique experiences that I had while being there. What inspired me, even more, to press on becoming a doctor was the fact that the clinic I volunteered in was a non-profit charity organization, and that everyone was putting their lives on the line by helping the neediest among the needy, the poorest of the poor. The case of Michael Thornton, a patient with a painful case of osteoarthritis in his finger joints moved me the most.

After telling the secretary about his complaint, he was promptly attended to by Dr Ali, the physician on-duty. Seeing the look of relief and joy in Michael’s face after getting treatment made me realize that this was what kept my father going as a physician. Realizing that fulfillment as a doctor is possible after seeing the relief and the gratitude in their eyes after getting helped, and this is the true essence of being a doctor under the Hippocratic Oath: of helping the ill, regardless of their status, and doing them no harm and healing them to the best of my abilities (Miles, 2005).

While the pay cannot be denied to be important in day-to-day living, at the day’s end the feeling of being able to help others feel better gives a doctor his feeling of success, and this is something that money can never buy. After thinking deeply, I personally choose not to become one of the doctors that just focus on their own comfort and wealth. I will be like my own father, who chooses to help others and even going beyond what is needed to get the patients the help that they deserve.

At present, I just started shadowing and doing neurostructural research, which I believe would be very useful to me as I continue my studies to become a doctor that puts the patients first.