Question: What significant accomplishments or life experiences make you unique?
I am blessed with the privilege to grow up in several places where opportunity brought my family to settle down. My parents and I were born in India but we moved to Spain at a very young age. My childhood passed when we move again to Germany where I spent high school. And now, we are in the United States – where I will shape my ambition to be physician someday.
I consider growing up in three different countries a great experience that formed my uniqueness as a person. Having been exposed to a widely disparate cultural milieu meant so much to me. It is this formation that made relating to people of different backgrounds a job I can do like playing with my toys. My ability to communicate was honed as I grew up in different places, not only in terms of language but understanding non-verbals as well.
Understanding people is not simply mastering their native language; this is what I learned from my Spanish peers. They are a people who treasure their culture, and that explains why they love festivals and the arts. There are also people who value their national pride above the rest, and this makes the Germans memorable to me. Dealing with people needs knowing where they came from, what worldview do they carry, and what they expect from others. I think this is an important skill for a professional whose job is to make people well. Learning to communicate is not simply talking and hearing what the other person will say. A successful and meaningful conversation is achieved only when one of the two parties has an in-depth knowledge about the other person’s background, and where that person is coming from.
I am convinced my varied cultural background will make me a better physician serving in a cosmopolitan city someday. The United States is no longer a home of the American people alone. The American Dream attracted Asians, Europeans, Pacific Islanders, Australians, Africans and practically all people from the world’s seven continents. And as the Hippocratic Oath held, the consideration of race should not be a barrier in the practice of the healing art.
At present, I fluently speak four languages: Spanish, German, English and my native tongue from India. For me, this is a huge advantage that other aspiring medical students would need years to acquire, if they have a material time at all to spend. All I need is to learn Chinese, Arabic and French – the other languages popularly spoken by the rest of the world – and I will be able to talk with anyone who is not a native of the United States.
My knowledge of varied cultures and languages made me unique. I am placed in a position that other aspiring students of medicine won’t be able to easily follow, unless they grew up in a setting similar to mine. As medical sciences advance, especially along technologies involving genetics, I think I would be able to easily understand how variations in human genetic make up was shaped by the extremely varied lifestyle and culture of people around the world.
Photo Credit : banjo d
