The Storm and it's Rainbow by Jacquelyn

The Storm and it's Rainbow by Jacquelyn - May 2023 Scholarship Essay

“After every storm comes a rainbow.” Such a saying was one my older brother Alonso would tell me all the time. Being the youngest of three and having a 14 year age gap between my older brother and I, he would engrain in me these sayings that I did not yet understand when I was younger. Up until September 23, 2017 I understood why after every storm came the rainbow. Diagnosed with stage 3 stomach cancer, my older brother was a warrior. He fought for his life day after day even when his cancer slowly would keep progressing further and further up his body until it reached his brain. He passed away in the presence of my mother and I. I remember my mother and I would sleep persistently day after day by his bedside for months straight when his hospital stays would prolong. Shuffling between grade school and my mothers work schedule was tiring. Seeing my mother cry herself to sleep and wake up in a positive mood to try and surpass the thought of her son progressively getting worse was something that is engraved to me till this day. Coming from a migrant farm working single parent household our only hopes we had for my brother's cure was the faith we had in medicine and god.

“Ding, ding, ding,” I would hear every so often. I hoped my family and I would be able to one day ring that bell and create such minimal but delightful sound. Every patient that had such privilege to ring the bell meant that medicine had worked on them. The cancer floor was such a depressing floor but it all changed when that bell would ding. That meant a patient had beat cancer. Seeing the medical staff be so genuinely happy and helpful towards the families that needed it the most was one of the most rewarding things to see as a spectator from the other side of the spectrum. Doctors were so well educated, so efficient, and caring it showed me the type of person I hoped to be in the future.

Now as a first-year, first generation university student I am able to become that other person of the spectrum. I am able to become part of the caring medical staff and not only be the spectator. September 23, 2017 was the last day I was able to hold my brother and hold his hand. He was pronounced dead and in that moment my rainbow shined after the storm. The storm caused such a painful suffrage for my mother and I who only now have each other and my middle brother. The storm to this day still hurts because we fought so hard for the life of my brother but doctors and nurses fought even harder. The rainbow continues to shine over me because the storm passed. My brother is my rainbow and is my motive to pursue a career in Nursing. I want to become that Nurse that was so caring and so passionate about her field of work. I want to be able to give those suffering families a little joy when they are going through their own storm.
I am currently working to achieve my Bachelor Degree in Health Science with expressed interest in Nursing. I chose this career pathway to help all the hurting families. This will reflect on my own sufferings and I want to give back to the medical community that was so most caring towards my family and I. I want to be able to help suffering patients be more at ease when it starts to get tough for them. I hope to soon be working with cancer diagnosed patients and in light be able to be their rainbow and together ring the bell that my family and I were never able to ring. Every “ding, ding, ding” that I will soon ring with my future patients will be in honor of the storm that still shines on me everyday and allows me to work hard and achieve the goals that I have in my path. I accepted the death of my older brother, it still makes me sad but his storm will allow me to be the rainbow of many other sick patients.