Personal Statement it Is Often Said, When

Personal Statement

It is often said, when discussing the importance of volunteering, that if an individual can only save one person, than he or she has lived a worthwhile life. In my case, I have volunteered for the past two years at UMASS Memorial hospital, a commitment that was preceded by my work at Santa Teresa Hospital, also as a volunteer. Of course, as a high school student, I cannot brag that I have saved many lives, or found the cure for any number of infectious diseases. Someday, I can say, I hope to do such things, but as yet I can only dream. If I have 'saved' even one individual through my current medical efforts, this 'salvation' has only come through my combined efforts with the doctors and nurses whose efforts I serve. But truthfully, I know that my volunteering has saved at least one person -- it has saved myself. Volunteering has given me a source of sanity and self-worth over the course of many difficult periods in my life.

To understand why this is so, let me take you on a flashback, back in time, to when my parents decided to move from snowy Massachusetts to sunny California. The motivating cause of their move was not meteorological. Rather, it was a desire to give my family a better life. But even in the craziest state of the nation, there is no assurance that all fairy tales will come true, if you only dream and wish hard enough. The stock market plummeted. My family became gripped by an intense depression, financially and emotionally. My sophomore year of high school we had to permanently relocate back to Massachusetts. Although there is beauty in this cold state that now I cherish, the move eastward proved harsh because it meant, at the time, that my family had sacrificed a great deal, and all for naught. All of the reasons, financial and personal, that we had traveled to California had evaporated in the sun, wrinkled and dried to dust.

For myself, though no longer a complete child in my understanding of my family's fortunes, I was most hurt by having to leave my friends and my school. My grades were severely impacted. Nothing seemed to have any meaning, any more. My family had worked so hard, but the only result was that we had to go back where we began, poorer than we began. Everything seemed dismal around me. "Go East!" And "Eastward Ho!" are not phrases that have the same emotional impact as "Go West!" It is almost like seeing the sight of the Stature of Liberty retreat from an immigrant's gaze, rather than to come to it, sailing into the harbor.

Gradually, I pulled myself together. My junior year, my perspective began to mature. I began to feel more at home in my surroundings. Volunteering at the hospital, as well as my work teaching children Indian languages and music were a tremendous source of stability and made me feel more integrated into my immediate community as a whole person.

A began to realize that the move and the world were not 'all about me.' I had to find some source of joy, so as not to be a burden on others. This increased sense of responsibility reaped great rewards, not only in terms of my G.P.A. But also with the renewed enthusiasm and vigor with which I was able to face the day.