- Joined
- Jul 5, 2010
- Messages
- 2,698
- Reaction score
- 14
I have to say it, I'm very happy with how the road to becoming a physician is unfolding before me. I feel more and more positive that I am on the correct path each day. My parents are proud of me and my siblings, of which I am the eldest, look up to and admire my achievements with the knowledge that I am a first generation Mexican American, a first generation college student who has several handicaps and a chronic medical condition and who was raised in an economically disadvantaged household of which I was the victim of an abusive and inattentive parent.
I moved from my hometown some years ago and began a new chapter in my life in a new city where I struggled to fit in and find my place. This would eventually lead to me taking a year off from college to meditate, pray and grow as a free thinking individual. I can't say just what changed in me, but I'm not the angry and traumatized little boy I was when I first arrived. Yes, I still have symptoms of PTSD that involves me breaking into tears and sobs when I relive a strong memory of my childhood, but I have learned to cope and my curse has become a gift of empathy for others and a desire to know and understand the human experience as others see it.
During my yearlong leave from my studies, I spent my time working with the vocational rehabilitation department where I was strongly encouraged to dream big dreams. The VR would then find that I was a very angry and upset individual who did not feel as if he were allowed to dream of anything more than a dead end job that would never be a career. I was strongly encouraged to see a counselor which I, of course, was very defensive of. I foolishly believed that there was nothing wrong with me. I wasn't wrong, there was nothing wrong with me, but there were some things that were just not right. My counselor was a Deaf man who also had a chronic medical condition. Because of this, I was able to relate to him. Our sessions were in American Sign Language.
In addition to the support I found from the VR and my counselor, I sought to explore the opportunities my new community had to offer me. I spent my summer as a day camp counselor at a center for children with developmental impairments such as Autism and ADHD. This is where it came to be revealed that because of my own childhood, I had a great passion for working with children, especially one-on-one. I also became involved in a local disability advocacy and social activism organization. Finally, through blind luck and what could only be the hand of God, I discovered my top choice medical school had in its employment a deaf professor of head and neck surgery and several deaf researchers. I made attempts to establish contact with this amazing man and upon telling him my own story of deafhood, he was eager to meet with me in person to discuss my ambitions. I had found my mentor.
I returned to school this fall with an entirely new attitude and a sense of self-worth. I had lorded over my greatest enemy, the little voice in the back of my mind chanting over and over again, "Can't! Can't! Can't!" I decided to take advantage of my hearing impairment and ignore the nagging little voice. I had discovered who I was and what I wanted most in life. My grades have shot through the roof and I have sustained an A in both classes this term. I am at the top of my moral philosophy class, a subject for which I have discovered a deep passion. I have decided to declare a philosophy major and a biology minor when the time comes. Aside from my studies, I am a tutor and a mentor at the local school for the deaf, I still see those amazing children from the summer camp once a month and I have become a voting member of the Oregon Self Advocate Coalition, an umbrella organization of which the disability advocacy group I mentioned prior falls under.
I attended my first advocacy conference fairly recently and fell in love with what I saw. This leadership experience has ignited a flame in me to speak out for equal treatment and equal opportunity for people with disabilities and demand to be heard by those who have the power to make change. The leader of the chapter I attend is a young woman with Tourette's and she, too, has become a mentor of sorts to me and a supporter of my ambition.
My mentor, the deaf professor, has recently pulled some strings for me and has made contact between the director of the otorhinolaryngology and head and neck surgery residency program and I to offer me the opportunity to shadow physicians who practice medicine in the specialty I am most interested in. Naturally the director is unsure of whether or not my hearing impairment will be an issue in the OR. I don't come with the expectation that everyone is going to accept me with open arms. Like it or not, I will always need to prove myself and my level of ability. I've been given this opportunity to prove my merit to a person with the power to help me along the road to my dream and for that I am grateful.
So, that's it. That's the Poetic Silence story and my only hope is that you can take something away from my journey and have it be put to use in your own quest. We are the writers of our life's story. Write it well.
Sincerely,
Poetic Silence
P.S. For those interested, here's a YouTube video of a deaf medical student doing her rotation in the OR.
[youtube]AwDvgFrbY5w[/youtube]
I moved from my hometown some years ago and began a new chapter in my life in a new city where I struggled to fit in and find my place. This would eventually lead to me taking a year off from college to meditate, pray and grow as a free thinking individual. I can't say just what changed in me, but I'm not the angry and traumatized little boy I was when I first arrived. Yes, I still have symptoms of PTSD that involves me breaking into tears and sobs when I relive a strong memory of my childhood, but I have learned to cope and my curse has become a gift of empathy for others and a desire to know and understand the human experience as others see it.
During my yearlong leave from my studies, I spent my time working with the vocational rehabilitation department where I was strongly encouraged to dream big dreams. The VR would then find that I was a very angry and upset individual who did not feel as if he were allowed to dream of anything more than a dead end job that would never be a career. I was strongly encouraged to see a counselor which I, of course, was very defensive of. I foolishly believed that there was nothing wrong with me. I wasn't wrong, there was nothing wrong with me, but there were some things that were just not right. My counselor was a Deaf man who also had a chronic medical condition. Because of this, I was able to relate to him. Our sessions were in American Sign Language.
In addition to the support I found from the VR and my counselor, I sought to explore the opportunities my new community had to offer me. I spent my summer as a day camp counselor at a center for children with developmental impairments such as Autism and ADHD. This is where it came to be revealed that because of my own childhood, I had a great passion for working with children, especially one-on-one. I also became involved in a local disability advocacy and social activism organization. Finally, through blind luck and what could only be the hand of God, I discovered my top choice medical school had in its employment a deaf professor of head and neck surgery and several deaf researchers. I made attempts to establish contact with this amazing man and upon telling him my own story of deafhood, he was eager to meet with me in person to discuss my ambitions. I had found my mentor.
I returned to school this fall with an entirely new attitude and a sense of self-worth. I had lorded over my greatest enemy, the little voice in the back of my mind chanting over and over again, "Can't! Can't! Can't!" I decided to take advantage of my hearing impairment and ignore the nagging little voice. I had discovered who I was and what I wanted most in life. My grades have shot through the roof and I have sustained an A in both classes this term. I am at the top of my moral philosophy class, a subject for which I have discovered a deep passion. I have decided to declare a philosophy major and a biology minor when the time comes. Aside from my studies, I am a tutor and a mentor at the local school for the deaf, I still see those amazing children from the summer camp once a month and I have become a voting member of the Oregon Self Advocate Coalition, an umbrella organization of which the disability advocacy group I mentioned prior falls under.
I attended my first advocacy conference fairly recently and fell in love with what I saw. This leadership experience has ignited a flame in me to speak out for equal treatment and equal opportunity for people with disabilities and demand to be heard by those who have the power to make change. The leader of the chapter I attend is a young woman with Tourette's and she, too, has become a mentor of sorts to me and a supporter of my ambition.
My mentor, the deaf professor, has recently pulled some strings for me and has made contact between the director of the otorhinolaryngology and head and neck surgery residency program and I to offer me the opportunity to shadow physicians who practice medicine in the specialty I am most interested in. Naturally the director is unsure of whether or not my hearing impairment will be an issue in the OR. I don't come with the expectation that everyone is going to accept me with open arms. Like it or not, I will always need to prove myself and my level of ability. I've been given this opportunity to prove my merit to a person with the power to help me along the road to my dream and for that I am grateful.
So, that's it. That's the Poetic Silence story and my only hope is that you can take something away from my journey and have it be put to use in your own quest. We are the writers of our life's story. Write it well.
Sincerely,
Poetic Silence
P.S. For those interested, here's a YouTube video of a deaf medical student doing her rotation in the OR.
[youtube]AwDvgFrbY5w[/youtube]
