And for the record, this is all my own personal work, do your own, no plagiarizing!
Here it is, in all it's 4964 characters (with spaces!) of glory! Ahem...
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It is not often that one can pinpoint the birth of a passion. Passions are deeply connected to an owner’s personal identity, rooted in a lifetime of experience and grow stronger over time; thus, pinpointing their origin can be difficult. But I know mine.
At a seminar in my late teens, I listened attentively as the man on stage detailed his life story to an audience of strangers. He spoke of a disease that had ravaged his life, killed countless friends, and finally claimed his lover as well. He spoke of being marginalized, even to this day, by a population afraid of his blood, and at times, by a medical community sworn to do him no harm. His disease still has no cure and, at the time he was diagnosed, lacked even a name: AIDS. I listened to his story and although I had come across the topic of HIV before, his story sparked something in me- in that moment, listening to that man speak, scientific interest melded with humanistic compassion, and my passion was born. I realized then that I very much wanted to be a part of the fight against HIV/AIDS by providing medical care to underserved populations.
In the years since I sat in that audience, that passion has not faded; my goal has remained at the forefront of my mind. I began exploring career options that would allow me to work clinically with HIV positive populations.
In the lab of Dr. Masliah I witnessed the terrible power of HIV on the human body. While there, I dissected brains of patients who had died of AIDS and were suspected to have HIV-related dementia. I also read morgue reports and clinical histories and witnessed autopsies first hand. At roughly the same time in my life, I also spent time in a neurology lab under Dr. Anita Bandrowski; both experiences gave me a greater understanding of neurology and how HIV acts pathologically in patients.
I joined Dr. Andy Yu’s lab shortly after I graduated. My work there had a clinical as well as an academic component- I worked with patients coinfected with both HIV and HCV on a clinical research study. I was responsible for a branch of the project that involved looking at varying doses of interferon as a way to control dual infections. I also looked for cellular markers in these patients that would give clues as to the immune status of the patients. I enjoyed the work because it was very translational- everything I was doing directly related to patient outcome and had the potential to expand our understanding of the best methods of treatment of this disease. It was while working here in this translational environment that I realized that while I enjoyed the research part of the job, what attracted me most was the patient care aspect. I realized that I wanted to be involved with treating patients on a day to day basis; that in order to fulfill my passion, my role in fighting this disease would be to care directly for the patients clinically, and after looking into different careers that would allow me to do this, my desire to become a Physician Assistant was born.
From my time in Dr. Yu’s lab, I moved on to working in a clinical pathology lab. I also began shadowing a PA in an after-hours primary care clinic dedicated to serving an inner city population. Both experiences have been both rewarding and eye-opening. In the clinical pathology lab, I have learned a great deal about disorders and diseases of the human body; in my shadowing experiences, I have learned even more about what it means to be a PA. Watching my PA mentor work and interact with patients has not only shown me the ins and outs of day to day PA life, it has given me a greater awareness of the wide range of problems faced by marginalized populations and the needs that exist in order to better serve these populations. For example, although my mentor works hard, at the end of the day, there are always more patients who need care and treatment, and it is clear to me that more PAs are needed to fill the gaps. I strongly feel that this is where I will fit in as a PA- as a primary care provider working with underserved populations.
I have gained experience in many different clinical settings, and have seen over and over how one disease, in particular, can ravage and destroy lives. I have seen the end results of a lifetime’s struggle with AIDS, looked inside the immune systems of patients co-infected with HIV and Hepatitis, shadowed in a clinic serving marginalized populations, and personally known and lost friends to the fight against AIDS. Each experience has contributed in a unique way to my passion, building it further and driving me towards the goals that took form that night in the audience. Thinking back to that day, listening to that man’s story, I know that the passion that was sparked in me then has been driving me all along to this ultimate goal, a career as a Physician Assistant. I would like the chance to fulfill my passion and begin this work, and I know that a highly exciting and fulfilling road lies before me.
