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Hello SDN!
I was wondering if I could get some input on which of the two topics i'm considering is stronger (or if they don't fit the bill at all) for my failure essay. Any comments are greatly appreciated!
1. Failure in communication: When I started volunteering at my local clinic making patient appt phone calls, I struggled to speak assertively and connect with mainly Spanish-speaking patients having no experience in customer service and rusty Spanish skills. Starting out, some of these patients would be really frustrated/angry with me, and also because many were underserved and struggled to get to their primary care appts b/c of work/childcare/travel conflicts. I felt like I kept failing them by not being able to connect better and provide reassurance. I decided to practice a lot in my free time by reviewing my Spanish and taking a medical Spanish course, and work on my communication skills in other settings. I improved greatly and ended up enjoying working with this population, especially when I worked in the ED helping Spanish-speaking patients with informed consents for clinical studies.
2. Failure in asserting myself: growing up I was always quieter and had a hard time connecting with my more assertive peers and was always concerned about offending others. Moving away from my support system for college was incredibly difficult in finding a similar support network. The first friend I made was my freshman roommate and while we got along okay she suffered from (later diagnosed) major depressive and anxiety disorders and began to rely on me more and more for support. I tried my best to be very accommodating, keep her company whenever she was upset/feeling down, and basically be her whole support system. Problem was I couldn't recognize how one-sided the friendship became and it prevented me from seeking new experiences and balance my own adjustments to college life. I started to feel physically and emotionally drained all the time and started to do poorly in school- I mainly consider this to be a great failure on my part for not taking care of myself and not knowing how to take control of my own time and energy since I felt obligated to this friend. After returning home for the summer I realized how unhappy I was that year because of how I handled this friendship and decided to seek help as I did not want to further sacrifice my wellbeing. I moved out of that living situation and created healthy distance with that friendship, developed healthier relationships, did better in school, and tried a bunch of new things such as yoga and mindfulness to help with emotional stress.
I wonder if the second is too personal/tangentially related to academic struggles, and if the first is more objective about a perceived failure and rise to the challenge. Thoughts?
I was wondering if I could get some input on which of the two topics i'm considering is stronger (or if they don't fit the bill at all) for my failure essay. Any comments are greatly appreciated!
1. Failure in communication: When I started volunteering at my local clinic making patient appt phone calls, I struggled to speak assertively and connect with mainly Spanish-speaking patients having no experience in customer service and rusty Spanish skills. Starting out, some of these patients would be really frustrated/angry with me, and also because many were underserved and struggled to get to their primary care appts b/c of work/childcare/travel conflicts. I felt like I kept failing them by not being able to connect better and provide reassurance. I decided to practice a lot in my free time by reviewing my Spanish and taking a medical Spanish course, and work on my communication skills in other settings. I improved greatly and ended up enjoying working with this population, especially when I worked in the ED helping Spanish-speaking patients with informed consents for clinical studies.
2. Failure in asserting myself: growing up I was always quieter and had a hard time connecting with my more assertive peers and was always concerned about offending others. Moving away from my support system for college was incredibly difficult in finding a similar support network. The first friend I made was my freshman roommate and while we got along okay she suffered from (later diagnosed) major depressive and anxiety disorders and began to rely on me more and more for support. I tried my best to be very accommodating, keep her company whenever she was upset/feeling down, and basically be her whole support system. Problem was I couldn't recognize how one-sided the friendship became and it prevented me from seeking new experiences and balance my own adjustments to college life. I started to feel physically and emotionally drained all the time and started to do poorly in school- I mainly consider this to be a great failure on my part for not taking care of myself and not knowing how to take control of my own time and energy since I felt obligated to this friend. After returning home for the summer I realized how unhappy I was that year because of how I handled this friendship and decided to seek help as I did not want to further sacrifice my wellbeing. I moved out of that living situation and created healthy distance with that friendship, developed healthier relationships, did better in school, and tried a bunch of new things such as yoga and mindfulness to help with emotional stress.
I wonder if the second is too personal/tangentially related to academic struggles, and if the first is more objective about a perceived failure and rise to the challenge. Thoughts?
