One Patient at a Time

One Patient at a Time

“Scalpel, please.” I ask as I make the first incision on my patient: Hello
Kitty. It was a major incident – a left arm ripped off – that needed
immediate attention. Needless to say, Hello Kitty was quite shaken
up, but fixed with around 20 sutures, nonetheless. I was six when I
performed this life-changing operation. From there on, my dreams of
becoming a surgeon blossomed.

In a world filled with uncertainties about what the future entails,
I have found one thing that makes me certain: the spirit of
volunteerism. From children to grandparents, and everyone in between,
individuals from around the world have committed themselves to
selfless acts of services. These phenomenal people are the reasons
behind my certainty in an uncertain world.

Volunteering at my local hospital has been my favorite civic mission so far. For
the past two summers,I began devoting an immense part of my time at the hospital through
their VolunTeen program. From spending four to eight hours on any
given day, I learned a lot about the importance of serving others.
Each day offered a whirlwind of new opportunities. I would do
everything from wheeling patients to their destinations and
delivering flowers and letters to cleaning toys and playing with the
patients in the pediatric unit.

            I’m constantly being challenged. The biggest challenge so far has been
the language barrier. I’ve found that communication is essential
when it comes to directing visitors to the right place. To overcome
this, I try to apply my knowledge of Spanish and Vietnamese,
personally take people to their destinations, or communicate through
my actions.

            I’ve volunteered over 150 hours at the hospital. However, it’s not the time that matters to me,
it’s the way in which I got to spend my time. The hours I dedicated
may only be numbers to someone else, but, to me, the hours turned to
valuable experiences. The valuable experiences forged friendships.
Friendships led me to see the importance of a community. And the
importance of a community is one of the many reasons behind
volunteering.

Volunteering at the hospital has renewed my vision to pursue a career in the health profession. I wish
to study biochemistry in which I can forge my interests for chemistry
and biology. I would love to spread my spirit of volunteerism to
other countries by volunteering through the Peace Corps when I’m in
college. No matter where my journey takes me, my goal is to become an
orthopedic surgeon.

To me, forward looking means that the actions I take today will help me
achieve the results of tomorrow. In the future, I don’t want to
look back and regret the things I did or didn’t do. Volunteering is
something that I will never regret. Through my actions and speech, I’m convinced that
volunteering, no matter how long or short, will make a difference in
anyone’s life. I’m constantly being inspired, and at the
hospital, I’m inspired me to save the world one patient at a time.