Personal Narrative : Military Service Woman

As a young child, I was always drawn towards the field of health care. I remember reading about the many options that are held within it and wondering what path it would lead me on. Neonatal nursing was something that always came into my mind, but it was often pushed to the side by people and teachers who thought I should become a pediatrician instead. This became a real struggle for me, but as I grew up and began researching and exploring the health care field I came to a decision for myself. I came to the realization that everyone was wrong. I didn’t want to be a doctor at all. This sudden burst of independence from what everyone else wanted was the first step to reaching my end goal. Along with this, an accelerated education, volunteer

Most people can relate the word “home” to one area where they grew up and made memories. Unlike most people, I called many places home. Growing up in a military family was an arduous task which had great impacts, both positive and negative, on my life. It shaped me into the person I am today. A person with a laundry list of flaws and imperfections, yet has learned to love herself.

Growing up as the son of a career Naval Officer, I have experienced a background that varies greatly from that of an applicant who has grown up in a strictly civilian family. The constant relocation, the exciting places I have lived, and the countless great, unique people I have met, have all contributed that that he unique childhood I have enjoyed. While at times my identity as a military child has made life challenging and difficult, I strongly believe that it has made me a stronger, more adaptable person because I have been molded by past experiences and I don't think that my application would be complete without this information.

After my observations, I have learned a lot about how the the medical aspect of the health care system worked. I always had the mindset that the doctors were the ones who ran everything in a hospital or a clinic. Upon observing, I realized that this was false and that it took teamwork, cooperation, and communication to help create an environment to best serve its patients. When I came into the University of Michigan as well as the Health Sciences Scholar Program, I had set my target to go into family medicine in order to pursue a career as a family physician. I also saw that there were many health disparities and inequities among patients in hospitals as well. I thought maybe I could help fix this if I became a physician. After my observations, I had an ambivalent feeling if I should still continue with what my heart was set on. I never really thought about exploring the vast array of other health-related professions. There were many fields of health professions I had really never thought about and this class as well as my observations had really helped open my eyes to the complexity of the health system to make it work.

“What do you want to do with your life?”. In my senior year, I recall being asked that precise question by each person that I encountered: my family, teachers, strangers, and even myself. I would answer with a vague mention of my hope to attend college. However, inside I was clueless of exactly what I aspired to achieve in my professional life, and I was terrified at that fact.

Time flows like a river and you find yourself not thinking the way you used to as a child. As I grew older, my dreams and goals changed as well as my mindset on how to achieve those aspirations. Mercyhurst University’s Public Health Program is the main step toward helping me achieve my career goal of becoming a Registered Health Information Technician. I’d like to define success as many achievements and accomplishments, as well as the coming of knowledge for that which was unknown to one’s self. Therefore, there should never be an ending to a success story. It was when I graduated as a medical assistant that sparked the realization to what field I was most interested in.

Even at a young age, people begin to ask you what you want to be when you grow up. Children’s answers will range anywhere from ballerina, to firefighter, to President of the United States. However, as you get older, the question becomes more serious. As a high schooler, you feel as if you need to know exactly where you will end up thirty years into the future. Since senior year began, I have tried my best to understand my strengths and goals in life so that I can prepare for my future.

“How can I know what I want to do when I grow up at this age?” I wondered. It seemed ludicrous to have such a question in fourth grade, but we had it, and my time was running out. I felt nervous, angry, and joyous at

Ever since elementary, we have been asked the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The question stayed the same throughout junior high and high school but the answers are constantly changing, at least they are in my case. I was that typical child, the one who dreamed of exploring space and all of its mysteries. However after trying to say quantum physics like a NASA scientist I soon decided that my exploration of that particular career came to a close. Around 7th grade, I was enrolled in a United States history class and enjoyed the studies of American politics and heritage. I soon set out to be the first female president, disregarding my financial standings as a broke-unemployed junior high teenager. This aspiration stuck

One struggle that almost every teenager is faced with is the decision of how he or she wants to spend the rest of his or her life. We have been asked since we were in kindergarten, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Only now, that lingering question has teenagers stressed. They are expected to make a decision at the mere age of 18 before they have even experienced the real world. While some people get to be 80 years old, still unsure of what they “want to be when they grow up,” others are fortunate enough to find their path early on in life. In June 2015, I found the path for me in the hospital emergency room where I had the experience of a lifetime. I was participating in a summer volunteer program called “AHEC (Area Health Education Center) of a Summer.”

“I want to be a firefighter, construction worker, and professional race car driver when I grow up.” This was my proud childhood statement I would use when asked the question, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” This question in particular is one that will be asked awfully early in one’s childhood, as well as very late in a young adults final years before venturing out into the “real world”. Like many other young children, I grew up with the mindset of having a exciting, heroic, and lively job for when I got older. I dreamt of operating heavy construction machinery, saving families while extinguishing fires of a decaying building, and speeding past vibrant and heavily decalled race cars. However, as I grew older and gained more realistic

I joined the Marine Corps looking for a challenge. I wanted to open doors for a new career and longed to have a positive impact on the world around me. Looking back five years later, I realize I found all that I originally sought, but I’ve also found something profoundly satisfying and meaningful that I never knew I was missing.

Everyday I try to make my son believe that his father will come back. I live alone with my son since my family is miles away. And just like any woman with her husband away at war I am afraid of being robbed and my house being invaded of those who has gone mad because of war. Encouraged by Rosie the Riveter, most women helps in the war by being nurses, cooks, or serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. I, on the other hand, takes care of my son. My life is normal and so are my everyday routines. First I make breakfast, next I walk my son to school, thenI cook lunch, after that I play with my son when he came home, and finally I make dinner. After dinner I kiss my son goodnight and go downstairs to watch the television.

“What do you want to be when you grow up,” is a question that I have been occasionally asked throughout my life. In elementary school, I, an avid bookworm and grammar enthusiast at the time, answered, “an editor.” In middle school, my answer changed to, “a physicist,” because my very first public presentation was about a physics project. In high school, the question asked has evolved from what I want to be, to what I will be. Never in my life would I have dreamed of saying, “A teenage parent.” For my parents, however, that was the only assertive answer they had in their life, because my mother got pregnant in high school. The freedom to choose what you want to be has, in most cases, subconsciously been taken for granted.

Since pre-school dress up and kindergarten work-sheets, the question of “what do you want to be when you grow up?” has been present. With time the question has transformed along with the child. It tangles itself into conversations with parents and peers, all the way into college when the question becomes: “So what do you want to do with your degree?” The steadfast inquiry clings close, whether it be a pleasant companion or worrisome pest, until its final transition from question to answer. No longer is it what will you be, but who you have become. No longer is it what you will do, but what now can accomplish in your calling turned career.