1. Throughout my entire life, people have described me as energetic. As a child, I never recognized how much of a strength this could be; now, I believe it is one of the qualities that makes me suited for healthcare. Many people underestimate the importance of energy in medicine, but through my time working as an EMT, shadowing, and volunteering in a children's hospital, I can confidently say it is what will make me a good physician. As a provider, it is your job to set the tone of an interaction, even if the patient is upset or aggressive. My positive attitude and engagement have shaped every single patient interaction I have had, and have helped me get through to patients who are "hard to crack". I want to pursue a career in medicine because I want every patient to feel that their physician sees them as a real person worthy of respect and engaging conversation that goes beyond convoluted medical terminology. Compassion and personality have the chance to change the trajectory of a patient’s experience in a way that hard science cannot. I hope to bring those qualities into every future clinical environment I work in. 2. "Mr. Brown, you were a lawyer?" I asked this question to my patient in the back of an ambulance on the way to his dialysis appointment. Mr. "Brown" had always been seen as one of our most detached and sometimes difficult patients by many of the EMTs I worked with at my inter-facility transport job. He spoke very little except for his cries of pain, and I always had trouble getting through to him, even with my bubbly personality. One day, while transporting him, I noticed in his patient binder that his former occupation was a lawyer. Asking him about it was the first time I was able to get a full conversation out of him, and the first time I got a true glimpse into who he was as a person. In that moment, so many things about healthcare clicked for me. I was reminded of how important it is to see your patient outside of their illness and the ways it has shaped their personality; that every single patient has a rich past filled with passions, achievements, and struggles. To me, empathy is the ability to zoom out of a single moment and view it in the context of a full life. In medicine, patients place their trust in you during their most vulnerable, painful moments; it can be easy to see this as their entire identity, when in reality, it is often one of the worst days of their life. Empathy is what makes the difference between a good physician and a great one. Treating a patient's disease is important, but quality care demands the consideration of their entire personhood outside of illness. After this interaction, I began to ask my patients more about themselves and their lives outside of their short ambulance ride with me. I found that it made them more receptive, cooperative, and comfortable even on hard days. As a physician, I will deal with a much higher volume of patients and a much busier schedule, meaning it may be hard to make these kinds of connections. Nevertheless, I plan to always work to see my patient as the culmination of their life instead of their hospital visit. Empathy is especially important in my dream field of pediatrics. Pediatric patients span wide ranges of development and maturity, meaning that their care requires nuance. During my time as a children’s hospital volunteer, I learned the importance of taking vested interest in a child’s life. Treating a child involves understanding their home life, parental consent, and even their favorite superhero - these small parts make up their whole world. To me, practicing with a human-centered lens means seeing every patient, pediatric or not, as a whole person beyond their diagnosis. This level of connection does not happen by accident - it must be forged intentionally and come from a place of true passion. I am called to pediatric medicine because I believe it is where I can make the most meaningful difference in healthcare.