Life after Hurricane Katrina Personal Statement

Life after Hurricane Katrina - Personal Statement Example I was forced to develop my critical thinking skills when I spent six months trying to find a job but got nowhere. I was at a crossroads where I needed to make a decision about whether my time was better spent continuing to look for work, which may or may not have been a fruitful search, or whether I should rededicate myself to pursuing academics in order to invest in my future and in my husband's future. The latter decision would be an enormous sacrifice. We really needed to make ends meet; and finding a way to boost my income rather than spending money on my education would have been the easy decision to make. Nevertheless, after seriously thinking through the options, I began to realize that making the choice to go to work now would have meant giving up on my future. I had to think critically about what I would be gaining and losing under both options. Working right away would have helped us to live more comfortably in the short term, but would have locked us into a situation where we would always be living on the edge of subsistence. Perhaps most importantly, I knew I would never really be happy. I had decided long ago that my happiness was directly linked to my work in the medical profession. I began to realize I would always harbor some resentment toward myself if I gave up on that dream in order to placate a temporary crisis in my life. Researching my options for breaking back into the medical profession led me to discover that this was the right course of action. It has been my lifelong vision to care for the health and the quality of life of other human beings. Ultimately, my ability to think critically led me to the conclusion that I needed to think with my heart and never give up on my hopes and dreams, regardless of whatever crises I might be confronted with in my life. Moreover, Katrina's impact on my life has led me to the conclusion that perseverance is the fundamental ingredient for achieving any kind of dreams that one may have. Perseverance entails not only a willingness, but an absolute resolve to stay the course in the pursuit of one's goals, despite even the most serious challenges that may arise. Without perseverance, it is easy to get side-tracked and lose focus on the ultimate objective. Perseverance enables a person to transform an apparent tragedy like Katrina into a real opportunity to further one's progress toward a goal. Without it, the ramifications of that hurricane would be affecting my life today to a much greater extent that it has been allowed to. Perseverance is the key tool for saying "no" to a tragedy: "you will NOT rob me of my goals and dreams!" Perseverance has also come into play in my life when other, less serious, challenges have arisen. It has enabled me to be true to my values at many points in my life. My values, including my prioritization of family, work and other responsibilities, my guidelines for my treatment of others, my principles for handling ethical dilemmas, and my overall life philosophy, have all been heavily influenced by various people, institutions and events in my life. Perseverance has enabled me to stay grounded in my values regardless of what life has thrown at me. There have been many experiences in my life that