My Medical School Personal Statement
A reminder for when things get tough, and they will.
Tomorrow, I begin my journey to becoming a physician.
There will be endless hours studying, gallons of coffee, and occasionally the feeling of self doubt. I will soon begin preparing for board exams, performing mock clinical encounters, and ultimately deciding on a speciality in medicine.
But before I consider the future, I want to consider the past. Not one year ago, my only focus and goal in life was to get into medical school. Now that I’m here, my mind is on the future of test and certifications. However, I was recently reminded that I am currently where I have always wanted to be, and I never want to forget that.
For this reason, I am sharing my personal statement; the exact one I submitted to the AAMC for the 2020 application cycle. I hope it reminds you to live in the present, not get caught up on the future, and remember your past.
I was too young to know my grandfather before he passed away. I remember his funeral; as we walked through the cemetery, my typically talkative family had fallen completely silent amid the restless Chicago summer. When we arrived at the burial site, I noticed his gravestone simply bore his name. It did not tell his story.
At 27, he moved 3,000 miles away from war-torn Palestine in search of a better life. With only an elementary school education, he found work as a plumber, and would regularly send money to his wife and 8 children across the sea.
Without the resilience of my grandfather to survive an unstable country and poverty, I would never have had the opportunity to attend college. If he could persevere, so could I. Despite the academic rigor, I took on each semester with renewed grit, motivated by my family history of overcoming the odds. I aspire to emulate that same internal drive that kept my grandfather moving forward through adversity as I obtained the second bachelor’s degree in my family and strive for the first master’s degree.
His life, however, was cut short by lung cancer due to heavy smoking. For decades, society knew of the associations between smoking and lung cancer, and even at a young age, anti-smoking campaigns hammered home the deleterious effects of cigarettes on our health; yet he maintained the unhealthy habit. His skilled team of physicians and nurses provided all the necessary treatment for his disease, but I always wondered why he never stopped smoking. Would that have prevented an early death?
This question guided me towards public health.
Public health complements medical practice. It allows healthcare to affect communities and populations, expanding its effect to more underserved groups, including Arab-Americans like my family. Physicians are the leaders in medicine. Physicians with public health training open the door for direct implementation science between researchers and clinicians; they pave the way for public health to inform medical practice. To accomplish my future career goals, I need to have both MD and MPH degrees. With the tools of data analysis, bias evaluation, behavioral trends, and clinical care, I can work to expand preventive medicine and primary care, promoting the health of entire communities and populations.
My grandfather’s story showcases the synergistic relationship of clinical and public health intervention. My public health training has taught me that his immigration status, lower educational attainment, and language barrier put him at higher risk for early death from a preventable disease. It is necessary for physicians to have the scientific knowledge of disease, but equally important are the socioeconomic factors that lead to excess morbidity and mortality. Combining both public health and medical degrees fits my interest in chronic disease, through a cardiology specialty, as this field requires complex preventative interventions and advanced clinical care for successful outcomes. Public health alone, however, is insufficient for translational science. Medical training is the next step in my career to becoming a translational public health practitioner.
In the last few days of his life, my grandfather was bedridden. As a kid, I remember dozens of people coming in and out of his bedroom: physicians, caregivers, and family, all offering their support and expertise. His physicians provided lifesaving amenities, caregivers undertook daily care like bathing, and family were there for the final moments, to give him peace before the end.
The fusion of these roles in a patient’s care reminded me of the interdependent work I’ve grown to value through my passion for music.
I have played trumpet for over half of my life. Every time I join a new ensemble, on the first day, I did not know anybody; that changes when we all begin to play. The entire room takes a single breath, perfectly in sync, like we have been doing it all our lives. Without straining, the voices of each trombone and saxophone come to my ear. I adjust my volume to give others the freedom to express, and they do the same for me. My grandfather’s physicians were like the trumpet players; we rise to forefront of primary care in the jazzy Big Band, but also accompany the virtuosity of nurses and caregivers in the calculated orchestra.
Music teaches me to always adjust to new situations and give others the freedom to express their own voices. The ensemble shows me the value of each part of the whole, coming together for a common goal: to make music. The arts have shown me that physicians are part of something bigger, coming together for a common goal: to heal people. I will bring music to medicine.
I want to dedicate my life to be a part of people’s stories of prevention, healing, and perseverance. I will use my public health training to complement and expand healthcare influence on people and in the greater community. Using the ensemble as my muse, I will play my part to cultivate interdisciplinary medical teams to better enhance the overall goal of healing people.
Each stage of my career has and will bring challenges, but with my grandfather watching over me, my goal will always be to strive for a better life not only for my family, but for my future patients.
