“So they put another needle in my back yesterday with the THROW-UP MEDICINE! And I had a needle stuck in my chest for FIVE DAYS! … FIVE days, right, Mommy?” A wave of tears came over my teacher, and I felt her sobbing pain settling in me. How do you read this to your students every year, I thought. I was sitting in Mrs. Gonzales’ seventh grade English class as she read Drums Girls and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick, who I would one day meet, wondering how one could create a story like this. From the back of the school library room full of students and teachers, I raised my hand. “Why did you write this book?” I asked Mr. Sonnenblick. He smiled and proceeded to conduce the response that forever molded my view on the power of impact. I learned that prior to his book he was once MR. Sonnenblick, a middle school English teacher. As a middle school teacher, he encountered a situation that would induce a pivotal point of change in his life, as well as Emily’s. Emily, a student in his 8th grade class, had a younger brother battling cancer. Upon his efforts of finding a book that would relate and be helpful to Emily’s situation, he found that no such thing existed. Therefore, this discovery led him to write a novel about a story similar to that of Emily’s situation so that she and others after her encountering a similar circumstance would have a story to relate to. Drums Girls and Dangerous Pie. For me, it became the first time I encountered the long-lasting interest in medicine and saw how gratitude reciprocates. “She has cancer. Don’t cry.”, said my mother to me about my sister as she picked me up from my high school, and we drove home. Just months after, my older sister, who at the time was eighteen, sat in front of me at the dinner table with a long scar below her neck which glared straight at me. I sat stunned in silence, listening to our family dinner conversations become overtaken by discussions of doctor's appointments and test results. What does this all mean?, I thought. The following years, I saw my sister get sicker as I progressed through my final years of high school and entered college. As I began my undergraduate years, I began feeling uneasy with the decision of following a pre-medical path. One day, I walked into my freshman Biology professor's office for the first time. I took a seat, and he asked me, “Who are you? Tell me about yourself.” At this question, the uncontrollable tears escaped my eyes. That day, I shared my family’s story of cancer for the first time, and it became evident to me how the struggles we face have a way of challenging but magnifying our passions. Reliving a part of my past allowed me to realize how that experience was a pivotal part of my life which fueled and made certain my desire to pursue medicine. To pursue a path filled with opportunity to learn more every day about life-changing science, people, and having the ability to meet others at their lowest. For my family, what this looked like was having to watch my parents decide between affording my sister's life or my college education, having to learn to fully care for myself at the age of 16, and watching my older sister drop out of college. However, I am thankful for how this experience has shaped me, my future aspirations, and steadfast love within my family.

Beginning the ninth grade, I was in my English class where we were starting class to begin the discussion over our summer reading. That year, my class had been assigned the novel Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. I recall having waited just a few days before freshman year to begin the book. From a young age, I had always loved reading books, as I grew up with a mother who valued literature and education. However, I was at the age where most children's interest in reading decreased and most of what I would enjoy reading would come from self-interest. However, those few days before my freshman year starting the novel, I did not expect to come across such an impact that has stood with me and my 22-year-old self. Tuesdays with Morrie tells the story of a relationship between Mitch Albom and his old college professor, Morrie, whom he reconnected with. After having graduated from Brandeis University, Mitch promised his professor he would keep in touch with him. However, not only does he fail to do this, but Mitch goes on to pursue an unhappy life after having failed to achieve his dream career as a musician. Instead, he goes on to pursue a career in journalism. Sixteen years later, while Mitch was flipping through the television channel, he recognizes Morrie's voice on a television program. Mitch reaches out to Morrie and decides to visit him. Mitch then continues to visit Morrie on Tuesdays where he further learns about his worsening condition, fears, and listens to Morrie's life lessons about the meaning of life. The life lessons that have become lessons I have kept close to me. "Do the kind of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won't be dissatisfied, you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's things. On the contrary, you'll be overwhelmed with what comes back." Morrie states that in life, we should do what we love. This may seem like common sense advice. However, having reached a point in my life where I have attended college, and I am pursuing a pre-medical journey, it can become easy to get lost in the toughness of the process forgetting my love for my passion. Through my journey, I've remembered Morrie's words and my hope for anyone reading this book, would to remember Morrie and his wise words through their journey.

About two years ago, the passing of my grandfather from my dads side definitely impacted me. Growing up, I quickly realized that my father and his sibling were not the closest of sibling and definitely has differences among them. However, they were only forcefully met together when we had a family event at my grandparents house. Of course, when we would be there it felt very forced and would most commonly not end in the best terms. However, after my grandfathers passing, everything changed tremendously. I realized that my grandfather was truly the glue to my family that held us together no matter what. After his passing, our family just fell apart and has not been in very close contact since then. Personally, this has made me feel sometimes mad or sad but I know that I can't do anything about this now, but I can do something about it in my future. If my grandfather passing has taught me anything it is to strongly hold on to what you have and those that you love because you can quickly come to lose what you have. Because of this, this has made my relationship with my parents and sister grow stronger and really care ad love for them.

Pursuing a higher education has always meant something more to me. From a very young age, I fell in love with the aspect of school and learning something new every day. I come from a family of two parents who do not hold a college degree nor do their siblings. With that being said, I am a first generation student who has had to face many difficulties when applying to college and adjusting to college. However, I can gladly say today that it has all been worth it and that I love what I have begun to dedicate my education to. Today, I attend Baylor University where I am majoring in biology on the pre med track, minoring in biochemistry, Spanish, and business administration, and completing a certification for Spanish for medical professions. When I first started college, I thought that biology would be one odd the only degrees I would be interested in pursuing, but that definitely changed after my first semester. I am an hispanic Mexican woman attending a predominantly white school and it has made me more aware of my minority role and label. This was especially made clear to me after taking Spanish courses at my university and realizing how much I do not know about my culture or how much I would like to impact those in my culture. It is for that reason why I am wanting to also further my education in hispanic culture by minoring in Spanish and completing a Spanish for medical professions certification. My desires for that degree and certification are to create and attend mission trips in hispanic countries to help those in need. In fact, through my Spanish classes I have learned the importance of having direct doctor patient conversation to be able to fully understand and help your patient to the best of your ability. Apart from this, my dream job concludes of hopefully one day going into pediatric oncology and specializing in hematology. I first fell involve with the idea of becoming an oncology physician after having read and meeting the author of the book titles "Drums Girls and Dangerous Pie". The book was about a true story which spoke about a high school teenager who finds out that his younger brother was diagnosed with leukemia. I remember reading this in the 78th grade and completely falling in love with the book and the purpose for this career.

https://youtu.be/bdPt6Z4Wfpk

I was born into a family where neither my immediate nor extended family attended college. Growing up, I lived in McAllen, TX, which is known to have a high rate of students who do not continue an education after high school or even do not finish high school. However, form a young age, I always gravitated towards the love of school and grew up with the ambition to go to college. Fast forward to my senior year of high school, I was applying for college and decided that my interest was to major in Biology on the Pre-Med track to one day become a physician. My inspiration came from reading and meeting the author of a book called "Drums Girls and Dangerous Pie". This book was based off of a real life situation about a high school student who learns that his younger brother is diagnosed with leukemia. Now having been in college for about two semesters, I have become more interested in other aspects and areas of medicine. As an hispanic Mexican woman who attends a prodominantly white university, it has made me far more interested in learning more about mine and the rest of the hispanic culture. In fact, my Spanish for medical professions course is one that has clearly shown me the importance of culture knowledge in the US, especially hispanic culture that is rapidly growing. Also, one of the clubs that I am a part of has created a group that specializes in working on mission trips with a organization from Peru called Operacion San Andres. Because of this, I am now currently a biology major, biochemistry minor, Spanish minor, business administration minor, and am completing a Spanish for medical professions certificate. In the future, my goal is to one day become a pediatric oncologist and specialize in hematology. Aside from a job in the hospital, I hope to travel to hispanic countries and spread my knowledge of medicine to enable better medical practices and also impact others. Overall, I can say that my hispanic culture has allowed me to look beyond what I believe I am capable of and has broadened my interests in college.

As a college student who is part of a highly competitive STEM major (biology), a triple minor (Biochemistry, Spanish, Business Administration), and is on track to complete a Spanish for medical professions certification all in four years, it can become very stressful. I have found myself in times where I've needed to take physical breaks from school, and that is where exercise is an important part of my college life. Almost my whole life growing up, I was involved in a sport, so exercise was a lifestyle for me. However, it wasn't until my first semester of college when I realized how important exercise was to my health and to myself overall. During my first semester in college, it was very difficult for me to find or schedule time for exercise because of the many new changes a college freshman experiences. In addition, my first semester of college is also when I started to develop a much more severe type of anxiety that felt like it would consume me almost everyday. I remember one day, I decided I was going to go to my university's student life center (the gym) and just go for a run. When I got to the gym, I put my headphones on, hoped on to the treadmill, and started running until my mind ran out of fuel to keep those stress causing thoughts away. That day, even though it was only for about an hour, exercise had never felt so stress relieving. It was a moment in my life when I truly realized the value in something I had taken for granted as a child. Sports and physical activity was more of an activity, something more for my college application, something fun, but not to truly help alleviate my physical, mental, and emotional stress. It is because of this that I now make it a priority to try and exercise at least three times a week and I can definitely say that it has impacted my life in a way that has positively changed the way I feel about myself and my health.