During college my closest friends and I have spent hours analyzing our personalities and determining what makes us unique. We explored what motivated our becoming good doctors and why it would make us happy, and we examined the underlying currents which influence and motivate our thoughts and actions. For me, the most visible current is communication: being able to articulate my thoughts, being able to make others experience them, being receptive to the ideas of others, and being understanding.
As a poet, I feel that in order to write meaningful poetry, one must have a clear sense of how to communicate effectively. Whenever I begin a poem, I remember the advice of my high school English teacher: “a poem should be wordless, as the flight of birds.” By choosing precise words, by paying attention to the sounds of phrases sewn together, and by evoking clear images, a poem is created. It should grip and move the reader immediately just as a person, seeing a perfectly wedged V-line of Canadian geese flying overhead toward the horizon, stops, catches his breath, and reflects on the beauty that has passed. It is through poetry that I try to recapture my feelings during those wordless moments, and I try to pass them on to the reader.
My need to be a communicator extends beyond poetry. Learning foreign languages, peer counseling, student advising, tutoring, and acting are activities in which I have participated. Each activity emphasizes a particular discipline of communication. Learning foreign languages stems from my enjoyment of communicating with people of different cultures in their native languages. By speaking a language common to us both, communication barriers are bridged. A peer counseling center offers students a comfortable place to talk. By attentive listening, the counselor helps the student clarify his thoughts and feelings and explore options to his problems. Student advisers form quick, friendly rapports with the incoming freshmen. Throughout the year, the advisers offer guidance and suggest options and opportunities at college by relating their own experiences. The tutoring process centers on imparting knowledge. The tutor must motivate the student to cope with his difficulties, to overcome them, and to finally enjoy learning the subject. My involvement in acting and directing is a form of personal expression through interpretation. I draw upon my experiences and intuition to present realistic, complex portrayals. Through foreign languages, peer counseling, student advising, tutoring, and theater, I have explored and developed my communicative abilities. It is this aspect of my personality that will be challenged by a medical career. Whenever one studies foreign languages, one learns to be receptive to a foreign culture. With a perceptive and sympathetic ear is how the peer counselor listens. A student adviser is a freshman’s first friend, and a tutor becomes a trusted teacher. An actor or a director investigates the endless possibilities of presenting characters and scenes in certain viewpoints. A doctor eapbodies the essential characteristics of all these people. A receptive student, a patient listener, an approachable friend, an informative conveyor, and a perceptive examiner are the types of communicator a doctor must be at all times. Recognizing this, I have made a concerted effort to extend and to nurture my capacity for expressing my thoughts, making others experience them, and hearing out the thoughts and ideas of others.