Pharmacy School Personal Statment

I’ll never forget the look on my mother’s face as she slumped into her corner chair at the dining room table that night. Perhaps she underestimated the flood of emotion that would overwhelm her as she relayed the news to my sister and me; perhaps she should have been sitting all along. As tears welled in all three of our eyes, I gripped my mom’s hand to reassure her, but I couldn't be sure myself. Cancer had already claimed the lives of both my maternal and paternal grandmothers, and though I was hopeful that my mom would beat her new diagnosis, I was overcome with grief at the very real possibility that she would not.
It was the summer before my junior year of college, and as I returned to school that fall I was noticeably preoccupied with my mother’s cancer battle at home. Several times I considered putting my studies on hold and returning to help my mom full time, but I was reminded of something she often repeated when I was going through difficult times. “Don’t let life’s adversities lead you off your path. You have to stay the course.”It was difficult advice to follow, but I had come too far on my journey to stop at that point. If I continued on I would be the first male in my family to finish college, and I knew I had to, “stay the course.” In honor of my mom and grandmothers I resolved to pursue a career in the medical field, and as I learned about pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics in my Drug Synthesis and Design course during my senior year, I determined that that career would be in pharmacy. My plan was to enter pharmacy school the year after I obtained my bachelor degree in chemistry, but changed circumstances at home demanded that I temporarily put my plans on hold. My mother ended up beating her cancer but over the course of the next two years my father and her got a divorce, my younger sister entered college, and my father got into a near fatal car accident that forced him into early retirement. The combination of these things put great