Finding my Motivation in Helping Others by Zachary

Finding my Motivation in Helping Others by Zachary - April 2024 Scholarship Essay

I have never met my biological father. Scott abandoned my mother when she was seven months pregnant with me, opting out of our lives over email from Iraq. His name is not even on my birth certificate. When people hear this, they say it’s tragic. I disagree. His absence from my life has shaped me into a much better man than his presence could have offered.

Growing up, it was just Mom, my brother, and I. In missing a key family member, not every day was easy. The teasing and torment that comes from being a kid with less than others. The challenge to finish all the “to-dos” as a family with one parent in a world set up for two. But I learned to stretch further, to forgive and move past attacks intended to cut deep. Not ignoring but also not accepting the bullies’ words at school. I also learned that helping others could help me.

My mom put me in basketball very early; I’ve been playing since I was five. Being an athlete, injuries occur, and I have been in an orthopedic office more than a few times in my life. I had a great doctor; one who made his patients feel seen and heard, that explained everything that he saw on MRI’s or X-rays, and one that understood the athlete mindset so he worked to help me balance resting to get better while also giving me options of ways I could still be involved in my sport.

In high school, due to my school being small, many students played multiple sports. Therefore, in basketball our pre-season “team” consisted of at most five people. So, when the football team members returned to basketball, they were out of the loop.

Ever since I started at my school in ninth grade and first realized this potential deficit to our team, I took it upon myself to be the one teaching the football players the new plays; the one who introduced teammates to each other, and tried to instill a unified team spirit; the one who made sure everyone knew when games and practices were, and what time to show up for the bus; the one who was vocal on the court helping direct everyone to not only play their own role, but to play together. I even offered rides to freshmen, to make sure they felt included, and knew they had someone on the team looking out for them.

While my team may not have had a specific role for team captains, my coach openly said how he recognized my knowledge for the game and looked towards me to be a leader on the team. I took that seriously, and I enjoyed playing that role. Watching the differences in our team from week one post-football season, to mid-basketball season; seeing players have fun together that didn’t know each other a few short weeks ago; whatever it looked like, I knew, and still know, that my efforts contributed to the overall good of the team.

Working alongside athletes to help them succeed, in whatever way that looked like, became a passion of mine, and I thought back to that doctor.

He inspired me to become an orthopedic doctor like him because of the kindness and understanding that he showed, and the ways in which he helped others every single day. I want to be able to go to school and become a certified orthopedic doctor so that I can follow in his footsteps and be a kind and understanding doctor to others, like he was to me.

With this career focus in mind, I was fortunate enough to shadow a different orthopedic doctor that my mom had become a patient of. On the first day, I saw patients during their checkup appointments. On the second day of shadowing, I was able to watch the doctor perform many surgeries.

Being able to watch this doctor in action reaffirmed my love for the practice and gave me an insight into what my life will look like in the coming years.

If I had not grown up the way I need, wanting to help others because I knew what it was like to need help, and had I not played basketball throughout my high school career coming back from injuries more than once, I likely would have never come to know about the topic of orthopedics; a career focus that has taken my heart and given me a clear goal to keep in mind while I traverse the challenges of undergraduate school and medical school.