Writing any application for a school can be difficult, and writing the Personal Statement can become the most challenging part of it. By the time you are preparing to submit an application, most of its elements are already fixed: your GPA, your MCAT or GRE scores, the activities you did (or didn't do). The Personal Statement, however, is an open field of possibilities in self expression, and that sense of ambiguity lends itself to great liberty and/or great anxiety. Admittedly, the title is somewhat misleading. A … [Read more...] about Writing a Christian Personal Statement
In Its Time
[The third post in a series on becoming a Christian physician. Earlier posts are Do You Want to Be a Doctor? and Helping People Is Not Enough]. After working 24 hours on call in the pediatric ICU, I was exhausted. I wanted to sleep, but friends had recently been reminding me of the health benefits of breakfast, so I dragged myself to a local diner for breakfast and sat at the counter next to a father and his little daughter. "We graduated from the booth to the counter," he was explaining to the waitress, … [Read more...] about In Its Time
Helping People Is Not Enough
[This is the second post in a series on becoming a Christian physician. The series began with Do You Want to Be a Doctor?] "Why do you want to work in healthcare?" "I want to help people." This dialogue is the most common conversation people will have about a career in medicine. The way we think about healthcare professionals tends towards the poignant and provocative: heroic paramedics and EMTs in ambulances, austere physicians and pharmacists and lab researchers in crisp white coats, dutiful and deeply … [Read more...] about Helping People Is Not Enough
Do You Want to Be a Doctor?
"I want to be a doctor. How do I do it?" As a teenager, I was very shy and very awkward. Talking to strangers was a painful and anxiety-laden task, and I didn't like to talk to strangers any longer than necessary. So when a pediatrician asked me, at a routine office visit, if I had any questions, I surprised myself by blurting out, "I want to be a doctor. How do I do it?" I had never seen the same pediatrician twice, mainly because most of them were residents-in-training. This one was caught off-guard by the … [Read more...] about Do You Want to Be a Doctor?
Money Makes Good Insulation
First, before reading any further, make a list of the top three things you struggle with as a Christian. *** I used to have a great view of the back lot of our block. In the center is a little island of wild grass where a few abandoned cars sit tiredly, waiting to rust into the ground or be stripped for parts. Around it is a ring of gravel with enough divots and potholes in it to make me swerve my car along it as if driving through a minefield. This circular pathway is itself surrounded by small lawns that boast a … [Read more...] about Money Makes Good Insulation