Well this is my first ever post on this blog documenting my life. I decided to start this blog after being on
http://studentdoctor.net/, a website that deals with the medical field and progression from high school to becoming a physician. I’ve been browsing this website for months and found a post where undergraduate students and medical students posted their blog links and would discuss their lives. I read through many and had an epiphany: Why don’t I make a blog for my life. I want to be a physician and always wanted to journal about my life, so my not start a blog. I do have a Tumblr, but that is for more humorous post. I’ll try to blog as much as I can, especially since its the Summer for me and I have nothing better to do. Let me give you some background about me.
Well, the is Samuel and I’m Nigerian-American. Hopefully you know I’m a guy from my name, but if you didn’t know I am. My father is 100% Nigerian and my mother is African-American mixed with Cherokee. I’m 15 years old as of today and my birthday is August 31st. I like to crack jokes and I can describe myself as outgoing due to cracking jokes. Some of my friends describe me as an “asshole”. I do have the normal nicknames of a Samuel: Sam, Sammy, etc., but a nickname I do like that one of my friends gave me is SirSamAlot. The reason why she gave me this name is because I laugh a lot. This comes with me cracking jokes and seems like each year since the 7th grade my laugh would change. Such as the pitch and the extra sound s I make when laughing, such as slapping my hand against a table or wall or sounding like I’m choking on something. I like the change for some reason.
I’m officially Junior in high school and I’m glad and sad at the same time, glad I’m getting closer to graduating high school, but sad that this is considered the most stressful year of high school. This is when you start choosing colleges you want to go to, start scholarships (though you can start as early as elementary for some scholarships), take more harder classes (I’m currently scheduled to take three AP classes, but that might change less or crazily more), and take the SAT and/or ACT. I’m not ready for any of that yet, but hopefully before Summer ends I’ll be ready…hopefully. The thought of taking the SAT and ACT scares me. Those two exams are a big factor in helping colleges pick applicants, the biggest in my opinion. I should be finding a way to study them right now, but I’m to lazy.
My current goal right now in life is to be a physician. Either a neurosurgeon, orthopedic surgeon, or pediatric surgeon. All are hard achievements to accomplish, especially trying to be a neurosurgeon. Let me explain why each specialty interests me:
Neurosurgery: The brain is the most complex part of the human body. It controls the many actions of the human being. For example, me deciding to make a blog and not making me motivated enough to type this blog entry. Also you work with the spine and the nerves on the body near both the brain and spine. Being a neurosurgeon can give you the feeling of being able to save someones life from a tumor, hemorrhage, or a parasite in or on the brain or help someone walk again from being paralyzed due to their spine being damaged, but you repaired it. It comes with great triumphs, but the trials aren’t great. You can potentially kill someone, actually some neurosurgeons see death easily everyday, which can be hard to deal with. Hopefully I can deal with that going through medical scool.
Orthopedics: With this you fix people’s bones that are deformed or they broke. The skeleton interests me with its great weight it deals with each day, you. The most intriguing part is the spine. The part of the body that directs our movement, with the help of the brain. I can’t give a good analogy of it because it still depends on the brain. Well, a car analogy might be good. It is like the steering wheel of a car. It controls how the car move, but something else controls it, a human, or with a body analogy the brain. I could just be a neurosurgeon and do surgeries on the spine and the brain, but the thought of multiple deaths a day that are indirectly, and sometimes theoretically, caused by me itself something you want to deal with each time you go home.
Pediatrics: Well this can be interpreted in ways with what I’m about to type: I DON’T like children. I know. How can you be a pediatric surgeon, but not like kids? That is the whole point of that specialty. Plus you’re still considered a kid to some! Well , the point is I don’t like bad children, like the ones who cuss, be disrespectful to others all the time, and try to belittle you, though they are smaller than you are. Well, usually in pediatric surgery, these type of kids don’t exist usually. They are sick and tired and just want to get better. I’m not talking about the they just have a cold kids, but the kids who have life threatening diseases and/or complications. They usually have a positive attitude because their parents and others around them are sad, depressed, and worried. This may not be true because I interpret this through T.V., but from the blogs I read from medical students going through rotation, they post how the kids are sweet and kind. The main problems here is that the age range is important, in my opinion. You have to operate differently on an 14 month year old baby than on a 14 year old kid, so that will be a lot of learning. Plus you have worrying parents that can lose their temper if you don’t do things the way the hope you would. This is greatly expected since the patient is their child, the most important aspect in their life. I would be hostile to if things wouldn’t get better for my kid. The positives are good though. You can save a innocent person’s life. A life that has a lot to live for and accomplish. A life that is still happy even when the worse comes. Plus I can combine my love for the brain and spine in this specialty and do a pediatric neurosurgery residency. Bring in my hopes of working on the brain and spine plus saving an innocent life who has been happy through the journey and seeing the smiles from parents and receiving much thanks and hugs is rewarding.
I may have just found my true passion from just typing this. Being a pediatric neurosurgeon sounds good. Hopefully, like the say on Grey’s Anatomy, I can go into the OR look at my staff and say: “It’s a great day to save lives today!”
-Samuel
