If anyone would review/critique my personal statement it would be greatly appreciated! please feel free to use any positive/negative feedback and share your thoughts. I really hate writing and it is something that is always hard for me, so any feedback is appreciated.
“You want to be what”? or “You want to do what”? Are the most common responses I get when I tell people I want to be a dentist. For some reason, people always seem to be shocked once they find out. As a kid although, I never thought I would be interested in pursuing Dentistry (Any reason dentistry is capitalized?) . In fact, I think my first profession of choice as a youngster was to be a firefighter. A firefighter turned into a policeman, a policeman turned into a professional hockey player, and finally when I arrived at college I decided I was going to study medicine. (This is probably a tale that everyone and their mother experiences.) Even though I grew up as the son of a dentist, the thought of actually becoming one never even crossed my mind. (Any reason to point out how foolish you were?) It was not until I spent a summer doing a compelling internship that I realized how exciting the dental profession is. I choose the internship because my brother had previously completed it and told me of all the wonderful experiences he had. (It's a good thing you had a brother!) I remember my first day and the first patient I observed. A sinus lift was being performed and at the end of the procedure I realized my own jaw was hurting. This was not because of any particular reason, other than the fact that during the procedure I was so amazed at what was going on my jaw was literally dropped for the entire time. Luckily my surgical mask was hiding my facial expression and neither the doctor nor the patient knew of my wonderment. Until that one internship, I simply had no idea of how amazing the profession of dentistry truly is. (Love at first bite.)
After my freshman year of college, I started my oddesy into dentistry. I got reregistered as a dental assistant, and in three short weeks I was already assisting the Doctors of Associates in Periodontics. (Why is doctors capitalized?) At Associates in Periodontics (You are repeating yourself, not to mention starting and ending a sentence with the same wording.) I did everything from taking out the trash, to assisting during implant, restorative and regenerative procedures. Some days I was even in charge of what is known as the “third column”. This is where the post operation patients would come and before the Doctor could arrive it was my job to perform some basic evaluations, as well as afterwards remove any lose sutures or perio-putty. I spent roughly 40-50hrs per week that summer in dental offices around the state of Vermont, and yet the only time I was ever bored was during my hour-long drive to and from the offices and home.
The main doctor I worked under, Dr. Levi, (There are 150K dentists in the US. Do you believe his name is important?) brought me to Tufts for a few days to see what the life of a dental student was like. I attended some classes, seminars, and even was able to assist the dental students themselves in the clinic. Other than my experience assisting at Associates in Periodontics (Is this a plug for the clinic?) that summer, I also had the wonderful opportunity of being able to spend time with Doctors In every other field of Dentisty. I had multiday rotations in Orthodontics, Dental health clinics, Oral and Maxillofacial surgery, General, Pediatric, Prosthodontics, Tempomandibular joint, and Endodontics. (Unless Webster made some recent chanes, none of those are capitalized.) Needless to say, this summer after my freshman year of college really motivated me to pursue dentistry. Due to the excitement, lifestyle, caring of others, accomplishment, and joy that internship provided with me, I knew dentistry was what I wanted to do.
I commonly get the question, however, “are you choosing this profession for yourself or because its in your family?” To be honest, it is both. My mother would never directly pressure me to become a dentist like herself, she never even mentioned it to me once, but growing up around that lifestyle has definitely influenced me indirectly. My mother is a single mother who raised 13 kids. Yes that’s right, 13. I’m (Avoid contractions) the second youngest myself, five are biological, and the rest are adopted from Vietnam, Korea, and the Ukraine. There is a lot of cultural diversity in my household, but I never perceived my siblings as being anything other than my own brothers and sister. I think one of the reasons as to why I’m so close with all of them is because my mother is a dentist. Being a dentist provides a similar job security as a medical doctor, but it allows for much more free time to spend with those who are close to you. Being a dentist is also fun! (This sort of an expression is for fitting of a first grader.) I experienced that during my summer internship, and now years later I can see that with my mother and her practice.
As you can tell, family is very important to me. At the age of six, I lost everything in a house fire except for my family and the shorts (What color were they?) I went to bed in. After the house fire, with thirteen kids homeless and two parents struggling to figure out what to do, my Father became sick, could no longer work and was diagnosed with terminal cancer. At the age of ten my father passed away. The next few years were very hard for my family, my mother, and me, but we all helped out to make ends meet. Things turned for the better when my mother met another man, Mark was his name. Mark grew to be a father like figure for me. He would take me to all of my sports practices and was always there for my family no matter what we needed. Very sadly, eight years later, just three months after marrying my mother, he too passed away from cancer. Adding to these unfortunate events, a little over a year later during my junior year of college one of my brothers also passed away. At this point in my life I was no longer mentally there for school. The thought of quitting crossed my mind, however, my friends and family pushed and helped me to continue and finish the school year. The point is, there are events in everyone’s life that shape who they are today, and for me, these dramatic events have allowed me to acquire a greater appreciation for the surrounding world. It has allowed me to have an unparalleled motivation to become greater than I once was, and has given me a new outlook on life. I am more thankful for what I have and the opportunities I am given. I now do my best not to take everything for granted and try to really appreciate the little things in life. These events have not only taught me to take risks, or to challenge myself and to better those around me, but to also be patient, gentle and passionate. I truly look forward to incorporating these qualities into my dental career and enjoying the lifelong relationships I get to build with my dental family (patients). (Not much in this paragraph that is salvageable.)
My goal for these last few years has been to graduate and attend dental school. As you can see from my transcript I have worked very hard to do so, but I also work very hard on all the other aspects of my life, such as my athletics and hobbies. Along with the dedication I have put into school and extracurricular activities, I am an avid adventurist. It seems every opportunity I get I am traveling to a new place to engage in a wild adventure. Whether it is traveling in a raft down the Grand Canyon, climbing for days at a time to reach the mountain peaks of Washington, going to Africa to swim with and research the great whites, or even going to dental school. The answer is always the same...“Yes, I want to do that”.
