Friday, October 10, 2014

Appreciating your journey… filling out “secondaries”


I decided to write this post  in response to a FB status that I read recently that said “We've been fooled into think(ing) our little accomplishments mean something until we reach the real world and none of that sh&$ matters”.

I immediately responded with: Your accomplishments mean something! You can't measure ur (your) success by looking at others. You (you’re) always gonna (going) to find someone smarter, richer and more attractive. (remember that(‘s) goes vice versa- there's those that haven't even graduated)”

For some reason I went to bed with this post on my mind. I thought to myself could this be true. Do my accomplishments “really” matter? This led me to think about my dreams of becoming a physician. I then began to reflect on the questions medical schools asked me on my secondary applications. They asked for example: tell us one thing about yourself that would help the admissions committee determine if you should be admitted to our program,  discuss a time when you stepped out of your comfort zone, and describe a personally rewarding experience.  

I asked myself what all these questions have in common.

I realized they all wanted answers that SHOW not just tell. In order to show why you are deserving of a seat, you must reflect.  For you to reflect you must have accomplishments worth the reflection. In other words every experience/accomplishment makes you into the person you are. In order to differentiate yourself from another candidate you have to be proud of what you have accomplished and realize that not only the big accomplishments like graduating from college or overcoming an extreme academic difficulty matter.  Any time you stand up for social injustice, encourage your peers and underclassman, anytime you learned from a mistake and put yourself in others’ shoes:  you accomplish something that “really” matters in the “real world”. It is crucially important to not compare yourself to others “You (you’re) always gonna (going) to find someone smarter, richer and more attractive”.