Personal Narrative: A Career In The Biological Field

As I exit the locker room, I strap on my black cleats and tighten my gloves. I grab my silver helmet with the lightning bolt logo, touch the sign that says “Play Like A Champion Today,” and walk into the tunnel. Finally, we hear our team’s name, and we run onto the field ready to defeat the fear of losing embedded in our minds. The opportunity arose, and whether we seized it or not, this would be my last game. We took away from that day more than just a win, or a loss. As somber as I was to let this moment go, I knew I had not let my team down. There was no anguish, no agony. These lessons from football have carried over in my journey to become a physician. I knew I wanted a career in healthcare, and football has better prepared me for that.

Astronauts, police officers, and professional athletes are just a few of my dream jobs from when I was a little squirt. Well, reality finally hit me and I realized that I’m about seven inches too tall to cram into a rocket and head of to the moon. Lets just face it, I sure as heck am not running around in a outfit with a badge protecting people. Professional athlete, well I just won’t start with that. Once reality actually hit I came up with an idea of having an interest in a future career as a fishery biologist. Ever since I caught my first fish years ago, I have just been full of questions about fish and how fish work. To this day I am amazed on how these wonderful creatures function their daily lives. Fish are able to take your hook

What I would see myself in 10 years would be working as a biologist, the work I’ll be doing would be studying types of plants and doing research on them. The career that I’ll have would be a scientist that studies on types of plants. Choosing this goal is important to me because my sister and dad made me feel inspired and makes me be hard-working for my subjects at school. The satisfaction that provides that if I discover some kind of new plant, I would name it after my name or other names and would do experiments or travel the world. I would say that my school provides subjects like science and talks about them more when you go up a grade.

In seventh grade, Mrs. McCarty taught my science class. We started dissecting animals and learning about the human body and we had to memorize muscles, bones, and structures in the body and how it all worked together. I originally thought that I wanted to be a veterinarian as my career, but from the first dissection of a cow eye I knew that I wanted to be a surgeon instead. We dissected a frog, a cow bone, a cow eye, and so much more. Mrs. McCarty’s science class sparked my passion for learning anatomy. I remember building a model of a cell in her class, which I still have on display in my house. Her class was so helpful

As a senior in highschool, one of my future goals is to become either a doctor or an administrator in health sciences. As long as I can remember, I had a fascination with animal documentaries when Animal Planet was very popular. However, then in high school, I was introduced to the Human Body, and it fascinated more than ever. I want to become a doctor because I have the drive to save other people’s lives.

Though I have another year and a half before I complete my schooling, it is always important to find out as much information about my future field of work. Knowing what is to be expected when going in for a job interview will not only be a bonus for myself, but allow me to feel confident when giving answers.

I remember being awaken by the loud commotion going on from the living room, so I decided to go check. I went out calling for my parents, but to my surprise, I only saw my mom on the phone crying from the reflection of a mirror. I wondered where my dad was. I got closer towards the living room and stood by the wall. I witnessed my dad sitting down on the floor having trouble to breath complaining about chest pain while my mom stood next to him. I closed my eyes in fear. I then heard something calling me to open my eyes. It was a siren that got louder and louder each second. I stood up and saw red lights shining through the window. There was a knock at the door and my mom went to open the door. Two men and a woman came through the door in navy

Ever since I can remember I have stayed busy by participating in every activity I could get my hands on. Spending so much of my time working on getting that perfect pass, mastering a triple pirouette, and focusing on school  has taught me what it means to have a hard work ethic. Through being involved in so much and having many people’s support I have learned who I want to be. My grandmothers have impacted my life in unimaginable ways and encourage me to strive for what I want to be: a marine biologist.

A few months ago at a free clinic for recovering drug addicts, a 19-year old female came seeking treatment for her active heroin addiction, and reported her addiction had progressed over the previous six months, paralleling her boyfriend’s, moving quickly from use of oral opioid painkillers to intravenously injecting heroin. The day she came to clinic, make-up barely concealed an injection site on her neck, which she reported, was where her boyfriend injected her with heroin, as she did not know how to inject herself and the veins in her arms had collapsed. The addiction specialist I shadow decided to treat her in the clinic and asked her to return in one week to monitor her transition from heroin to buprenorphine. This patient struck me, as she was so young and overwhelmingly consumed by her disease. However, I was not able to follow up with her case as I began my current position at UCLA. As a shadow, the inability to follow patient’s care as much as I desired, along with knowing I did not have enough experience or knowledge to care for the patients, was incredibly scary and frustrating, although it was simultaneously

Everyone’s passion is different, whether it’d be drawing, cooking, fashion, etc. Mine so happens to be learning about health. Choosing this as my passion was easy because learning how the body works and how it reacts to different viruses and diseases or medicine is fascinating. I also enjoy helping others and putting their needs before mine. This passion takes me into building a career out of it by going into the medical field and becoming an RN. Knowing that becoming an RN won’t be easy won’t change my mind for my career but it will only want me to work harder and not stop trying. The best way to be prepared for the future is planning everything out which is something I will try to do.

Three years ago my grandpa got very sick, and was admitted into Hospice. Every day I watched as CNA’s and nurses took care of him, helping our family. The support of those caregivers made me want to be a CNA for the summer, and possibly pursue a career in the medical field. Helping people has always been a passion of mine. The happiness I feel by helping others, is what I strive for. Compassion and kindness are two of my most valued traits. I would not be the person I am today without them.

My field experience was in Ms. Felkins third grade classroom at Washington Elementary School. The class there are nineteen students total, nine boys and ten girls. There are two different ethnic groups in the class, four African American students and fifteen white students. Additionally, there are three students who go to a resource room throughout the day for academic instruction. One of the students goes to the resource room for thirty-minute increments throughout the day. Three students go to a small reading group each day to work on reading skills.

The sharp scent of chlorine fills my nostrils as I crane over the microadjuster, determining whether my Platinum/Iridium wire tip is done reacting. Waving away the fumes, I observe the bubbles fizzling out, turn the voltage off, and twist the tip out of the machine. At 163 nanometers wide, it’s the sharpest tip I’ve etched this summer.

When I was in third grade, I told my mom I would became a great teacher just like my amazing third grade teacher. She was a caring, helpful and awesome teacher and everyone loved her. I was positive about my decision until I was in middle school. The teachers I had were amazing, but seeing them had to deal with the students with problems made me changed my mind. I did not know what I was going to be until I was in high school. I have many cousins who are in medical field; one of them is a nurse, one is a scrub nurse, one is a pharmacist, one is a family doctor and another one is a prosthodontist. I got influenced and inspired by many great people in my family, so I decided to be in medical field. But deep down inside, I was still unclear about what path should I take.

Nigeria, 2001, I awakened startled with people screaming indiscriminately. My dad's head was bleeding profusely, and my cousin, sitting in the passenger seat was bleeding from his neck. There were shards of shattered windshield everywhere. I was in the backseat uninjured but scared. This commotion was the aftermath of a car accident involving my dad, my cousin and me, while he was driving us to school. Next, we were rushed to the hospital, however, upon arrival, we were refused treatment until we paid an admissions fee. This practice was common in my country. Although the incident was disturbing, it drove me towards a career in healthcare, mainly working with patients who have a difficulty affording their medical care.