Dedicate Myself to an Interest

¶ … dedicate myself to an interest or pursuit, I always give that endeavor one hundred percent. For example, if you were to see me playing soccer or baseball and saw my fixated stare and the flexing muscles of my quads and hamstrings, you would assume that these sports were my greatest passion in the world. You would think that I live to hear the satisfying smack of a soccer ball against a clear or the crack of a baseball against a bat. I am indeed captain of both my soccer and baseball teams and all-conference for both varsity teams. But as demanding as these sports may be of my time and energy, they comprise only a small part of my character and life.

I am also involved in Key Club and Pep Club, and have been for all four years of high school. I believe in giving back to my community, and as a dedicated sports enthusiast as well as a player, I believe in the value of spirit-generating activities. One of the aspects I love most as a participant and honored member of my school's branch of the National Honors Society is the service-oriented focus of that organization. I have also received a Raider Class Act Award for showing good citizenship and I am a member of my school's Prom Committee.

Outside of school, I am very involved with church and my youth groups, both of which strive to help the poor in my local community. I am a member of my church choir and participate in services every Sunday. No matter how busy I may be with my activities, I am always invigorated by my faith. I recently attended the National Youth Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. And remember many long discussions I had from student leaders all over the nation about the importance of belief, family, tradition, and community, regardless of where one may live, or what one may do throughout one's life.

Service and compassion will be the true vocation of my life, as well as the pursuit of academic excellence. I intend to pursue a career in medicine, a career that I regard as a calling as well as an aspiration. My sports activities have disciplined me, toughened me, and honed my competitive instincts in a way that I believe is necessary for pre-medical studies, and later, perhaps, for medical school. I intend to enter the health care field, either a practitioner, or perhaps from a business angle, as I have grown convinced, after seeing my own family's struggle with the bureaucratic aspects of the American medical system, that there is a need for an infusion of compassion and reform into the system from all areas, on the part of administrators as well as doctors.

At present, to give me a strong academic founding for my rigorous college studies in science and business, I am currently enrolled in three AP classes: Calculus AB AP, Psychology AP, and Spanish V AP. I hope these classes will give me a foundation in the sciences, and also sharpen my ability to understand and communicate better with those whom I serve. Additionally, after speaking with people through my charity work for whom Spanish is their first language, I have grown to appreciate how much speaking in someone's first language can mean to them, and help to establish a sense of comfort between two people.