Why I Want To Be A Doctor Reflection Essay Sample

I have lots of goals that I’d like to achieve by becoming a doctor: helping others, learning about the brain, helping with healthcare disparities, and bridging the gap of knowledge that exists around women’s health. I feel like by being a doctor I can have the biggest impact on most people, whether that be as a pediatric neurologist or a gynecologist which are my two main areas of interest. 

Growing up, the biggest father figure in my life was my grandfather. My mother spent her time taking care of both him and my grandmother so I was able to be with them most of my life and as I grew older I helped her take care of them. My grandfather wasn’t in the best of health and honestly, he didn’t care until I was around, which was a little late. He was a diabetic to start which led to his decreased kidney function and eventual kidney failure. I always wanted to help him and do the best I could to improve his life which is where I gained my drive to help people and do my best to benefit others in life. I was always interested in his treatments and helped as much as I could to understand what was going on with him, whether it be giving him insulin or asking the doctors a million questions when I was around. In high school, I spent my free time reading and learning about the body, things that affected the heart, and diabetes specifically as that was where both my grandfather and I had troubles. It was my mission to understand everything wrong so that I could help to better people’s lives. Due to this, I have pushed myself to be a doctor so that I can help those who need it and have a positive impact on people’s lives. 

Throughout my life, I have been to countless doctors' offices as I was born with pulmonary stenosis and had severe allergies. My mother was the primary caretaker of my grandparents so she didn’t have a job or health insurance so I was always on state-supplied insurance and thus was forced to go to a state-approved doctor’s office. From this, I learned firsthand about the disparities in the health system. One of the major events that impacted my decision to want to produce a change in this is when I turned 13 and it was suggested that I receive the HPV shot. My mother decided not to give it to me as a large number of the articles and research she found said it could lead to mood swings and depression which I was already starting to struggle with. The doctor did not respect my mother’s decision and belittled her practically saying that when I contracted HPV and cancer it was her fault when I died. I hated seeing a professional talk down to someone they were supposed to be helping. I continued to see this disparity when I wanted to go on birth control. I had irregular periods ever since they started and I had been to a specialist who said if they didn’t improve by the time I was 16 to try birth control, but when I turned 16 and nothing had changed my primary care doctor didn’t want to prescribe it to me. They suggested that I wait and see if my conditions improved despite my concerns and seeing a specialist. I hated that it seemed like my concerns and problems were not being listened to and I didn’t want other people to feel this way when going to someone that was supposed to listen and help them. This is another one of my main drives to why I want to become a doctor so that I can equally help those who need it and listen to them because I know that sometimes that’s all a person needs. 

One major goal in my life was being able to help the people around me, which led to my interest in the brain and mental health issues. This arose as I and several of my friends started struggling with depression and anxiety. Again I used the desire I had to help other people to do as much research as I could on mental health problems. The main reason I chose my major of behavioral neuroscience is that it was one area that I felt I had been most affected by in my life and I wanted to be able to produce a change in the lives of those that struggled because I knew the feeling that they had. During my struggle with mental health, I saw a string of different professionals and not all of them were great, especially when my interests turn to more nontraditional methods of treatment. When I moved away to Nevada for my first year of college it was newfound freedom and one new activity I had tried was marijuana since it was legal. I didn’t see as much harm in it as I had before. I had always looked into other treatment options outside of prescriptions because of the overwhelming amount of negative side effects. Through this experience, I found my first major interest in the mental health world: alternative treatment options. Looking back at how I had been treated by doctors I was hesitant to mention my exploration with alternative treatment options. When I did mention it to my psychiatrist it was looked at negatively even though the state of Missouri recently legalized it medically. I felt like I was immediately viewed differently when I said I was using “drugs'' to help in addition to my antidepressants.

Another major interest area that followed my interest in the brain was my love for children. I have always been a fan of kids and taking care of them. I worked as a substitute teacher at a Montessori school that allowed me to help watch and teach children. This shaped my interest in helping children by showing me how much I loved working with kids. This became a key factor in the area that I wanted to study and help: pediatrics. For this reason, I have looked most heavily on becoming a pediatric neurologist to be able to help children that suffer from mental health issues. From autism and Down’s Syndrome to helping with concussions and epilepsy. I’d like to cause an impact on children’s lives and be able to give them the best quality of life they can have. 

The last main factor that pushes me to become a doctor is my secondary interest: Women’s health. While in college I decided to add a human sexuality minor to my degree path. Through this, I learned about how sex and women are treated in society. I feel like there are several gaps in the medical field in areas that concern women’s health. Thousands of women barely know their anatomy because it isn’t talked about whether it be by matriarchal figures or the American education system. Since our world is very predominantly male-dominated it can be hard to talk about women’s issues. Even the stigma that is around the most naturally female thing, periods, shows how little that some people know about the women’s body and how it works. I’d like to help make women’s access to health care more available so that we can have more knowledge circulating and less stigma.