The Pursuit of Everything by Benjamin

The Pursuit of Everything by Benjamin - June 2017 Scholarship Essay

Growing up in a military family, I was fortunate to experience variety throughout my childhood. From overcast, rocky ocean inlets and Alaskan salmon in the northwest to sandy beaches and Atlantic oysters on the east coast, constant change was an integral and welcome part of much of my life. Exposure to different communities, schools, relationships and challenges ingrained in my developing brain a simple fact: I wanted to do everything.
Listening, captivated, to my father expand on his experiences in the military compounded on my own less varied, yet still eye-opening, experiences. Introducing a 6-year-olds imagination and positivity into the desire to travel and, in my young words, “do everything,” I set my sights on serving in the military like my father and so many people that I had been introduced to across the country. Back then, I didn’t have time to develop this grandiose idea into a specific job plan; I was far too preoccupied planning my future travels and enthralling experiences.
As I got older, I realized that I had an affinity for and a draw towards the medical field. Soaking up information in high school anatomy classes led to many frustrating yet rewarding nights studying biochemistry and physiology in college. These caffeine-fueled struggles and successes incubated the idea of a medical career, and I began to research how military service could compliment such a pursuit. It didn’t take long to confirm and focus the general idea I had been cultivating, that the military is in fact very conducive to the pursuit of a career in the medical field.
The most recent and current development in my education, pursuance of a graduate degree, has not changed my goals. A medical job in the military, allowing to me experience variety and diversity to the extent that I’ve always envisioned, can most certainly be in my future and I look forward to further developing the exciting prospect of what I want to be when I grow up. Seeming far-fetched at first, my sights are now on fulfilling the goal I unintentionally set as a child of "doing everything."