Since Early Childhood, I Have Been a Trial-And-Error Person

Since early childhood, I have been a trial-and-error person. I tried every sport that my elementary school offered, many different hobbies (ex. model and rocket building, drawing, etc.), read a variety of books, and found an attraction to three things: running, drawing, and the sciences. Thanks to a few field trips to the Science Museum, around the time of third grade I had a grasp of astronomy, paleontology, biology, and chemistry, and was fascinated by each just the same.

Then, my life took an unexpected turn; my older brother, who was nine years old at the time, had a stroke. Soon after my brother’s recovery, I realized that if it weren’t for modern medicine, he would have surely died. My curiosity was the doorway to knowledge I knew existed but took for granted, that of medicine. Human anatomy, physiology, and much later on, immunology now took precedence over my other interests in the sciences. Middle school passed without even a step into the field of medicine, and it became a sort of personal interest. High school, however, activated and amplified my interest by offering classes such as Physiology & Anatomy, and Microbiology.

Next thing I knew, high school was nearing an end, and the task of finding a good college was staring me I the face. After perusing through information from many different colleges, I decided the University of Minnesota Duluth would be an excellent choice due to the reputation of their pre-med program, and the offering of a new major: Cell Biology.

The problem with college is, you can go in with a focus, and then find yourself lost in a world full of choices. I found this happening to me slowly over the first two and a half years of college. I came in knowing of only a few paths to take, and soon found myself in Crete, guiding myself through the labyrinth of King Minos. Then, I remembered something my old neighbor, Arthur Dussl, once told me: “Brian, whatever you do with your life…make sure that you don’t do it for any other reason than that which will make you happy.” I soon found myself outside the maze, back into the focus and ambition that I once started college with.

When my fourth year of college began, my roommate and I became known as the “Heaney Hall doctors”. We couldn’t go a week without getting asked about someone’s symptoms and telling them what they could do practically to make themselves better. On top of being a residence hall “doctor”, I also undertook a research project involving the proliferation of pathogenic bacteria at varying body temperatures and conditions, which is currently being expanded to test more body conditions. So far, this experiment has helped me to better understand how a pathogen grows in the environment of the human body, and how the body reacts to pathogenic invasion.

I am running the gauntlet which is undergraduate school, and currently, I have but a few obstacles left to surpass. My ultimate goal is still yet to be chosen, although I am looking at two as of now: orthopedics and family practice. My aspiration to contribute to the wellness of others, accompanied by my rapture for medicine makes either one of the paths laid before me, the right one for me.