Personal Narrative: My Adverse Childhood

My Adverse Childhood Events score is 4. In hindsight this makes sense; I grew up with an alcoholic parent. In rural New Hampshire, compared to friends’ families, we were stable. I was graceless and brash. I struggled to fit in. To cope, I read.

I fell in love with the narrative. Stories of human resilience were my favorite. Fiction, non-fiction, and science fiction - it captivated me. I spent hours reading novels, discovering differences in cultures and people. I learned people communicate through stories. I sought stories from the people around me, watched the way they interacted, how we worked together and apart. Just by listening and watching, I gathered details that otherwise might be missed. My application to college was entitled, “Why I want to be Lois Lane.” I imagined myself as an activist, someone who stood up for herself and others. Over the years, that youthful passion matured into a need to be a community leader, specifically as a pediatrician. As a physician, I appreciate stories of human resilience with a depth cultivated from childhood.
Gloria Steinem wrote on organizing social change, “If you want people to listen to you, you have to listen to them. If you hope people will change how they live, you have to know how they live. If you want people to see you, you have to sit down with them eye-to-eye.” The idea of meeting people at their baseline and involving them in the development of community programs resonates with me. Through my Masters in Public Health and in Health Science, I developed the skillset for asking a question, piloting research data, and operationalizing the outcome so it can best translate to a population. More so, through this course of study, I developed the ability to influence the narrative of a community. My interest in advocacy and public service is rooted in seeking meaningful connections with my patients and their guardians, and developing programs that benefit the