Unquestionably, I gained an early taste for the field of medicine through the influence of my parents. While they never made an attempt to persuade my career endeavor, their experiences in the medical profession gave me an early exposure and interest in health care. While neither of my parents are doctors, their stories and knowledge from their medical experiences have always captivated my interest and left me wanting to know and understand more about the human body.
             After a conversation one night with my father, who has a license in medical technology, about the health effects of smoking, I decided to do my junior high science project on the effects of smoking on hemoglobin's binding capacity to oxygen. Even though I received first place for this project in the biochemistry category, and also was the only student who did a project in that category and yet didn't even know what biochemistry was then, that honor did not have a direct effect on my desire to become a doctor. Rather the impact of both my grandparent's, whose blood samples I used for this experiment, decision to suddenly and successfully quit smoking after twenty plus years is what turned my career objectives toward the dream of becoming a doctor. I learned from this project that successful treatment takes more than just knowledge and technology, but a true sense of care through proper motivation. If my grandparents never knew how concerned I always was about their habit (and my desire to convince them to quit) all the statistics and data would never have made such an impact.
             A few years after my junior high research project, the summer of my junior year in college, I had the opportunity to work in the same hospital lab where I conducted the research, with qualified guidance, for my junior high science project. This work experience played a significant role in shaping my idea of what is required to becoming a doctor. I learned that this opportunity d...