This I believe -

When I was in third grade my best friend's mother passed away after loosing her battle with brain cancer. Two years ago my Uncle Charles passed away after a two year battle with liver cancer. Just last year my boyfriend's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, and shortly after that my Great Aunt died from lung cancer. One of my good friends from home had leukemia as a child and still has to go for bi-monthly testing. I could continue from here, but I guess the point I'm trying to make is that ever since I was young cancer has been a part of my life.

All of this exposure to tragedy and death, all of it due to cancer, has influenced me in many ways, but it has had the foremost impact on my career choice. I believe that there is a cure to cancer and I believe that I might be able to help find that cure. This is the reason I want to be a doctor. The sorrow surrounding the death of my uncle and aunt is the main driving force behind me and my education as a biology major. It is the thought of them that motivates me to get up everyday and study for my tests. It is the pictures of them I keep in my room that keep me going. On the days I want to give up and stop working, it's their memories that remind me of what I am trying to do.

I believe that in becoming a doctor I will be able to help save someone from the sorrows my family and I have had to experience. If I can save one person from going through what I have seen my loved ones go through, that will be enough. As a doctor, specifically as an oncologist, I want to help people with cancer. I've seen the sadness and pain that cancer inflicts, and I want to help relieve it. As I continue down this road, through college and into medical school I look forward with a brave and anxious face. I know the potential sorrows that my future job may entail, but I am so anxious to look into the eyes of a patient I have saved.