Personal Statement. The weekly visits to a center for children with autism and cerebral palsy during my first semester in college had strengthened my desire to learn more about medicine.
Since I was a kid, my mother who is a nurse always sent me to sleep with her amusing stories with her patients. Sometimes touching and at other times inspiring, her stories of how a doctor juggles between pure scientific knowledge and the softer side of humanity never ceased to astound me. I found the human body to be amusingly complex, even far surpassing the most up-to-date machine ever invented. A chance to explore this complex organism and use the knowledge to contribute to better health and well-being is simply irresistible.
My interest in medicine was put to test on the day I went for an attachment at Sarawak General Hospital. Alone with a pediatrician telling a mother of her son's incurable cirrhosis, my heart was torn to watch as she tried to hide her miserable face from the mother. This had shown me two sides of the profession, a more mechanical, rigid aspects of it such as keeping the medical record true and systematic and maintaining neutral attitude towards every patient while the other side being softer and touches more intimately on the emotional and emphatic relation between one human being caring for another. Beyond doubt, keeping these two in balance is a challenge I am willing to venture in.
