Visceral reactions with secondary essays

[freak7]

Hello all,

Let me preface this by saying I come from a low SES upbringing and a lot of bad things happened to me/my family during that time period.

I've been noticing that when I'm answering prompts like "how do you fit our mission" for schools that aim to serve low SES communities, I get a bit emotional and I also get a sinking feeling in my gut. In conversation my answer to that question would be "oh I grew up poor so I want to go back and serve communities that are struggling with similar issues that I did," but in a secondary essay I feel the need to showcase how I can empathize with the poor by describing specific experiences that I went through and how I felt when going through those challenges. It's hard for me to imagine how commonplace is for children to be forced into playing the "dodge the moldy bread" game at the outlet etc. At times I have a hard time believing that I actually got through some of the garbage I had to deal with so thinking and reflecting on it is sad and at some times extremely difficult to get through. Usually I have to stop for a few minutes to take some breaths before resuming writing.

Any of my low SES buddies feel me?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[BeMD13]

I had moldy bread from the Nickles outlet!! Dumpsters too, but those are actually better lol! I saw a meme the other day that said "What doesn't kill you gives you a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms and a really dark sense of humor." Definitely true in my case!

 

[Kgizzle]

Naw... I'm sorry times were hard . It's easy to conceptualize hard times as terrible and what not but I always remind myself that it could be worse. That type of upbringing makes you resourceful, makes you tougher / resilient. That upbringing made you who you are. You are writing secondaries to get into MEDICAL SCHOOL!!!! Struggling early on is what is going to make you a good, empathetic, non judgemental doctor. Those tough times are what brought you here and are what are going to make you successful

 

[freak7]

I had moldy bread from the Nickles outlet!! Dumpsters too, but those are actually better lol! I saw a meme the other day that said "What doesn't kill you gives you a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms and a really dark sense of humor." Definitely true in my case!

I know right! I'm so good at laughing at terrible situations now. It's actually pretty funny, I tend to find beauty in total crapstorms and genuinely enjoy them because now they're just hilarious to me. Whenever everything goes wrong at work or something, I'm usually just smiling and thinking "ahhh, this is my element!"

My past doesn't really bother me, it's just putting myself back in those shoes and seeing how much better off I am now (or how REALLY BAD things were) can be tough when you're writing about them. In fact, I just recently remembered the moldy bread thing a couple months ago. Not because I "blocked it out" or anything, I just try not to make a big deal out of crappy situations I'm in (so I guess there's my coping mechanism! ).

 

[BeMD13]

I know right! I'm so good at laughing at terrible situations now. It's actually pretty funny, I tend to find beauty in total crapstorms and genuinely enjoy them because now they're just hilarious to me. Whenever everything goes wrong at work or something, I'm usually just smiling and thinking "ahhh, this is my element!"

My past doesn't really bother me, it's just putting myself back in those shoes and seeing how much better off I am now/how REALLY BAD things were can be tough when you're writing about them. In fact, I just recently remembered the moldy bread thing a couple months ago. Not because I "blocked it out" or anything, I just try not to make a big deal out of crappy situations I'm in (so I guess there's my coping mechanism! ).

I know what you mean. For the most part I'm laughing and joking about everything but I've actually cried a few times after these essays got me digging everything up. My sister cried too after reading one of them and was like, no wonder we're so effed up! I really do feel like my past will help me relate to my patients though so I guess good comes out of everything in some form or another.

 

[freak7]

I know what you mean. For the most part I'm laughing and joking about everything but I've actually cried a few times after these essays got me digging everything up. My sister cried too after reading one of them and was like, no wonder we're so effed up! I really do feel like my past will help me relate to my patients though so I guess good comes out of everything in some form or another.

Yeah it's weird. You put it all on paper and then you just think "now how on earth is this dude even close to normal"