Making a difference: from my mom to the medical field by Yousra

Making a difference: from my mom to the medical field by Yousra - June 2020 Scholarship Essay

My alarm goes off, it is 5:15 am. I stumble out of bed knowing I only have a few minutes before my mom needs her medicine. I make lunch and eat breakfast. I crush one milligram of clonazepam to help with her myoclonus, before mixing the blue powder with water to put down her peg tube. It’s 6:10 am, I have 20 minutes to get my mom ready. I lay out a pair of cozy pajamas adorned with black cats. I grab a bucket from the bathroom closet and fill it with warm water. Once done, I get my medical gloves on and change her brief. While I brush her teeth, I check her vitals; heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen levels, and temperature. Before leaving, I set the TV to a show my mom enjoys. It's currently Vampire Diaries. I kiss my mom goodbye and run to the bus before it leaves.

They say that life has many ways of testing a person’s will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having everything happen all at once. Mine was the latter. In 2013 my mom had two heart attacks that led to an anoxic brain injury and left her incapacitated. The road to recovery after that was, and still is, a long and emotional endeavor. Although I was only 10 years old at the time, it made me step back and analyze my own life. At that very moment, I knew my childhood had come to an abrupt end. I had to be a helping hand, not a child who had to be helped. This journey has filled me with empathy and motivation. These traits are reflected in my academic interests and my life of public service.

I soon found my passion in reading up on different medical mysteries and how the body worked, because of the ample amount of time I had sitting in different hospital rooms. The science classes that I take feed my desire to grow and help. I want to become a doctor to help families that are going through a similar situation. My Mother had always pushed me to be greater than who I was the previous days, and to be able to honor her aspirations for me, while at the same time making a career out of what I love, would be a dream come true.

Outside of academics, I channel my passion for helping others through the National Honors Society, which I became Vice President of my junior year. My duty as vice president is to help people to enjoy helping others. I have always enjoyed helping others, whether it be a human or animal, volunteering at pet adoptions or at Memorial Hermann Southeast. My mom is the primary reason why I love to help people. I feel a moral obligation to help others because of my mother, and through that passion and obligation I want to be able to pursue a career in medicine to learn about similar situations as my mom, prevent children from going through what I went through.

After a long day of school and homework, I continue to care for my mom. At 5:00pm I walk downstairs to give my mom 2 milligrams of warfarin to thin her blood and help to prevent blood clots. I then prepare my mom’s dinner: a cheeseburger (her favorite), water, and fruit. By 7:30 pm, my mom has finished getting her last medications for the day. I help my sister lift my mom into the bed, change her, and tuck her in for the night.

I am 1 of 1.4 million children in the United States who is a caregiver for a loved one. Through my challenges, I want to grow and prosper and be able to shine a light on others who are going through similar situations—and are not only caretakers but need a hand themselves.