I am writing my personal statement. I am trying to decide if I should include what I've been through growing up. My dad was a terrible alcoholic and prescription drug addict for 15 years of my life. My family was verbally, emotionally, and sometimes physically abused by a man we loved. There were incidents with guns, him going to jail, and going to rehab many, many times. We look like a normal, nice family from the outside. He destroyed his body and now he is paying for it. Anyway, I know that this has greatly affected who I am as a person. Everything with him got very bad the summer before I attended UW-Madison. I left for college and was worried about my family all of the time. I saw the doctor many times due to stomach ulcers; I think the anxiety was making me sick. My head wasn't in the right place and I did not do well my freshman year. I finished up the year and transferred to a college near home because I wanted to be there to make sure my mom and brother were okay and to help mom out with her business. I did better throughout the rest of college, but still not awesome. I am still dealing with my addict father. I have a whole lot of patient contact experience from working as an EMT, so I am working that into my statement, but what do you think is the best way to approach/explain my situation?
Mention bad home/family life...
- Thread starter Morguean
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Just my opinion, but the PS is the place to talk about "Why Medicine". It did shape you into the person that you are today, but almost every secondary has an adversity/diversity/ tell us something not found on the primary application. That is where I put my story about being the child of an alcoholic and how I deal with it as an adult.
