Pursuing A Career In Medicine

I paid a cost as I grew up without a father. My mother and I struggled financially, and I was left to learn the set of lessons that every father should teach their sons on my own. As a result, I was at a disadvantage compared to many of my peers growing up. From this seemingly unfortunate situation, I gained a sense of independence that carried into my teenage and young adulthood. Further, this experience has amplified my desire to pursue a career in medicine. As a lower-middle class Hispanic brought up in a single-parent household, I can relate to the struggles that many low-income and medically underserved individuals face on a daily basis — an insight immensely relevant to clinical practice. This empathy has been extended by a personal cancer