personal statement first attempt!?!?
Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 5:21 am
Two potassium pills. A near death experience and all I have to show for it is two potassium pills. Oh, and a bank account that is suddenly missing eight hundred miniature portraits of George Washington. A bit crestfallen, I check my suddenly precious iPhone only to realize that it is time for breakfast. Pancakes at seven o'clock in the morning have never, and will never, taste so good. I remind myself to return to IHOP after my next conversation with the grim reaper as I move one uneven zombie leg in front of the other towards my girlfriend's car. As I attempt, and fail, to open the door to Karen's car door, I absentmindedly reach towards my phone in order to inform my father of the medical escapade I had just returned from. Sitting in the passenger's seat, I recall how, just hours ago, I navigated Styx in this jet black canoe. As I recall Charon asking me where my coins were, my father's sleepy drone interrupts my adventure.
“Hello?” He muttered. “Hey Dad!”, I responded, “Sorry to wake you”. In typical paternal fashion he dismissed it without batting an eyelash. “That's fine. We wer... I mean I was just about to wake up anyway”. I noticed him trip over his tongue, but I had grown used to this. He performed these verbal acrobatics when he forget to omit the presence of his wife Cathy. In this instance, he was celebrating his honeymoon. Eureka Springs had been kind to my family ten years ago. The roads were very windy and and it smelled funny. Ten year old Michael did not pay attention to much more than these facts, but I do not care much for the details as much as I value the family time we spent together navigating and avoiding those unpleasantries. But now, Dad has taken his new family there to make new memories. As I formulated my response, my cloudy brain registered a foreign sensation on my right cheek. I pulled my phone away to see a smiling picture of my mother. I realized I had given her my wallet at the ER and she still had it. Choosing to continue my conversation with the other half of me, I explained what had transpired.
“About 3 AM I felt a twinge in my lower back. I continued to brush my teeth, but I started to feel very short of breath. It felt like my lungs would not inflate. I shook it off and walked up the stairs to bed. And then I walked down the stairs. And then back up the stairs. And then I woke Karen up. “Karen's mother is a nurse right?” my dad astutely interjected. “Yeah, she called her right away. She told my I should have left for the emergency room 30 seconds ago. Thoroughly panicked, everything got worse. I became faint and my pulse was leading the Daytona 500. The car ride only exagerrated my symptoms. I thought I was going to die. When I got to the ER I was put through lots of tests. EKG's, lung x-rays, blood draws, and a physical exam.” “Oh Michael! What did they find out?” “Nothing. They gave me two potassium pills and sent me on my way” I recited. “They figured my potassium was low even though the blood test did not show an unusually low count. It helped though. I feel perfect now!” After the pleasentries, I hung up the phone and, now laying in bed, entered into a slumber the old man would bump his head for.
A follow up appoint with my general practitioner revealed nothing. Several months later I returned with similar complaints and I was diagnosed with suffering from panic attacks. These panic attacks, which had become quite frequent, are triggered by stressors in my life. My doctor went over techniques with me to master my brain ,and I have. I still suffer the occasional relapse, but I can nip it in the bud. Between my parent's divorcing, my working twenty five to thirty hours a week during school, maintaining my grades, and finding time for myself, I have a full emotional plate, but I have developed ways of handling such tasks without channeling my anxiety into panic attacks.
For example, since my ER visit, I have become much more serious about my studies. I have managed my time and looked on my work positively, rather than negatively. This has cut out much of the academia induced stress. I have overcome a potentially debilitating condition and turned it in to many positive qualities. As a student of __________, I will be able to continue these personal growths and translate them into professional accomplishments. My father being a police officer has exposed me to the law all of my life. I have grown up wanting to affect positive change on people's lives, just like my father does every single day. The law presents a perfect avenue to continue my father's legacy and I would love for __________ to be the first chapter.
“Hello?” He muttered. “Hey Dad!”, I responded, “Sorry to wake you”. In typical paternal fashion he dismissed it without batting an eyelash. “That's fine. We wer... I mean I was just about to wake up anyway”. I noticed him trip over his tongue, but I had grown used to this. He performed these verbal acrobatics when he forget to omit the presence of his wife Cathy. In this instance, he was celebrating his honeymoon. Eureka Springs had been kind to my family ten years ago. The roads were very windy and and it smelled funny. Ten year old Michael did not pay attention to much more than these facts, but I do not care much for the details as much as I value the family time we spent together navigating and avoiding those unpleasantries. But now, Dad has taken his new family there to make new memories. As I formulated my response, my cloudy brain registered a foreign sensation on my right cheek. I pulled my phone away to see a smiling picture of my mother. I realized I had given her my wallet at the ER and she still had it. Choosing to continue my conversation with the other half of me, I explained what had transpired.
“About 3 AM I felt a twinge in my lower back. I continued to brush my teeth, but I started to feel very short of breath. It felt like my lungs would not inflate. I shook it off and walked up the stairs to bed. And then I walked down the stairs. And then back up the stairs. And then I woke Karen up. “Karen's mother is a nurse right?” my dad astutely interjected. “Yeah, she called her right away. She told my I should have left for the emergency room 30 seconds ago. Thoroughly panicked, everything got worse. I became faint and my pulse was leading the Daytona 500. The car ride only exagerrated my symptoms. I thought I was going to die. When I got to the ER I was put through lots of tests. EKG's, lung x-rays, blood draws, and a physical exam.” “Oh Michael! What did they find out?” “Nothing. They gave me two potassium pills and sent me on my way” I recited. “They figured my potassium was low even though the blood test did not show an unusually low count. It helped though. I feel perfect now!” After the pleasentries, I hung up the phone and, now laying in bed, entered into a slumber the old man would bump his head for.
A follow up appoint with my general practitioner revealed nothing. Several months later I returned with similar complaints and I was diagnosed with suffering from panic attacks. These panic attacks, which had become quite frequent, are triggered by stressors in my life. My doctor went over techniques with me to master my brain ,and I have. I still suffer the occasional relapse, but I can nip it in the bud. Between my parent's divorcing, my working twenty five to thirty hours a week during school, maintaining my grades, and finding time for myself, I have a full emotional plate, but I have developed ways of handling such tasks without channeling my anxiety into panic attacks.
For example, since my ER visit, I have become much more serious about my studies. I have managed my time and looked on my work positively, rather than negatively. This has cut out much of the academia induced stress. I have overcome a potentially debilitating condition and turned it in to many positive qualities. As a student of __________, I will be able to continue these personal growths and translate them into professional accomplishments. My father being a police officer has exposed me to the law all of my life. I have grown up wanting to affect positive change on people's lives, just like my father does every single day. The law presents a perfect avenue to continue my father's legacy and I would love for __________ to be the first chapter.
