A Vision For My Future--Nikhil

 

Let me start by asking you a question. Do you have a dream for your future? A goal? An aspiration? A mindset of early, life-long accomplishments? Well, I do, so allow me to paint you a picture of the vision I have for my future and how determined I am to make this vision a reality.

My entire life, my parents have been the biggest motivators and a great support system for something that was but also continues to be years ahead of me. My parents, coming from underprivileged lives before, have constantly worked and worked to build an enjoyable life. ​The dedication to fight through the disadvantages struggled daily and rewarded with the wins is my constant drive. Now that my parents do not work as hard, I have the ability to continuously learn from them about success in life, finding a passion that is my own, making something of myself that is meaningful, and most importantly to never give up on my goals. That is only the surface of the many life lessons I’ve learned from my parents and I still to this day, discover new things about myself and different approaches to the life I want to build for myself. With my parents being the backbone through different academic programs, a variety of extracurriculars I engaged in, and constant guidance throughout schooling and life in general, I was able to build skills that set an inner focus and perseverance to find a passion of my own that I want to pursue as a career in the future.

School...This was the center of pretty much everything that I was taught at home. I would always hear not only from parents but other family members and family friends as I was growing up, “you need an education,” “you have to go to college,” “don’t stray away from the path your

on,” etc but what I want to say is that, sure, sometimes constantly hearing the same things over and over can be huge stress especially when you want to please your parents. However, I can say from the bottom of my heart that as I gained more knowledge and lectures over the years, I truly did come to appreciate the advice and teachings I had received from people because it is what made me hone myself into the person I am today. By my parents, I was always pushed to take the hardest classes in school available to me no matter what, even if it meant nothing to me at all but the reality was that even if I thought I could not learn something useful, I was wrong because there is always something I can learn in everything around me. Grades were another huge thing within my family, I had to come home with straight A’s otherwise it would be another lecture, another yelling, or even me getting grounded. Sure I was upset at times, but the lesson in that pretty much demonstrated that I did not study enough the night before because I went to play video games instead or I did not ask enough questions for the things that were complicated, or even just me not paying attention at times. I learned to appreciate the way my parents got involved because it showed that they cared and that it was for the benefit in the long run which was something my mom constantly said because everything that she and my dad do is for my future and for my benefit. Over the years, my parents did become a little more lenient but only so as long as I stayed on the right track with their end goal of me getting into college, and I stayed focused on school, I was able to do pretty much what I wanted: hang out with friends, play video games some more, anything that pertained to some sort of entertainment which I enjoyed that privilege.

Furthermore, I can proudly say that not only is school (mainly due to mere interests and curiousness for science and the human body) one of the reasons, but also the environment and world around me, the people who support my choices and decisions, and most importantly, my personal self and feelings, I chose to dedicate myself to pursuing a career in medicine. Over the years, I’ve tried to figure out who I am and what makes me get out of bed in the morning, or what puts a smile on my face, etc. I can definitely say that I am someone who cares deeply for others, a little more than what is good for me but that’s the beauty in it, I am someone who finds pleasure in helping other people for their benefit, I am someone who is motivated enough to motivate others when they are down, and I enjoy being there for people in a time of need. There is way more to me but above it all, I find happiness in helping other people because it benefits them. This is definitely one of the biggest reasons why I chose the medical pathway not only because of interests but because I see myself as a compassionate person and I believe I have what it takes to engage upon this path. When I learned that I wanted to go into medicine, there were so many days just filled with research both online and advice from family and friends into me learning about medicine, the different specialties, the different types of doctors, daily lives of physicians, etc. It was if so that I was just so intrigued by it and a little obsessed with wanting to figure out what I wanted to specifically do. Eventually, I gained a soft spot for surgery and I was set on pursuing a specialty in surgery, specifically cardiothoracic surgery. Why do I choose heart surgery? Simple really, personally, I have a big heart and as I have mentioned, I care very deeply for those around me and so just something about the different ways people feel, how the heart is the center of our life and the emotions and feelings that we base our heart off of, these basic functions that make us, us, truly is something I want to explore. I want to help people live out their lives happily, lovingly, and full of joy in their hearts.  I am truly passionate about pursuing this career choice and this is my one goal, aspiration, vision for my future, whatever you want to call it, this is all I want to do and I will constantly strive to fight through the daily struggles and celebrate the wins at the end of the day no matter how small, just as my parents showed me to and to never give up on something I am passionate about.

This is the beginning of my journey along the paths I have chosen to engage upon and with that said I want to pass on a little motivation to the readers. If you have a goal, something you feel strongly about, whatever it may be, I want to emphasize GO FOR IT no matter what. No matter who brings you down, no matter what obstacles you come across, still go for it. There will be times where you lose motivation, times where you lose that spark that keeps you going, times where you just are not determined, but this is where you see what you truly are capable of because failure happens to be the best motivator, ask yourself, “What can I change?” or “What did I do wrong?” and trust me you will learn a new lesson. Can I be honest, there were numerous times where I wanted to just quit, where I had no motivation, where I got lazy at times, but even then I chose to continue. Also, there will always be other people that bring your goals down but it is important to block out the negative energy because only you can build yourself what you choose to build and so do not let anyone else put you down. Those that put you down are already below you. I have definitely had other people shoot my goals down, laugh at me, saying why am I wasting my time going through 15-20 more years of schooling, saying that I am not gonna make it, etc but let me tell you, if it’s a true goal to you and you own that, the amount of negativity you are able to block out becomes immeasurable. Finally, something that I say to myself when I feel a lack of motivation, “Dreams don’t work unless YOU do!”