My most vivid childhood memory is the day when my parents took me, a four-year-old girl, to the Concert Hall. This was the first time I had seen a real symphonic orchestra playing Mozart. The moment I heard those mysterious sounds, I knew I was deeply in love with music, with the way the musicians tune in before they start playing, with the thin fingers caressing the piano and the strings of the guitar. I knew that in my life there was no choice.
My “life-long romance” with music lasted for a decade and then a disaster stroke. While snowboarding in winter, I clumsily fell over and broke both collar bones. The doctor who examined my X-rays looked compassionate; he might have even felt like that, but his words were cruel: “The fractures would heal in six weeks, but you will have to think about other career options, as you will hardly ever feel comfortable playing any musical instrument”. Suddenly, I faced a whole ocean of options and choices. Unfortunately, I did not want any.
But life continued and gradually I started paying attention to other activities people can do in life apart from playing a musical instrument. I really had to choose where to go. And strangely enough I chose something which had nothing to do with music (the only thought of being related to it not being able to play seemed a nightmare). I chose medicine. The fractures healed, as the doctor had predicted, and I was prescribed a course of rehabilitation gymnastics. The more I visited the doctor, the more clearly I saw my way to go. This was exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to help people keep their choices open and have possibilities to choose from the endless list of options without being limited by disabilities. I wanted to work every day to help kids like me recover from injuries and continue doing what is larger than life for them.
I spent my high school years working hard to obtain good academic results. While my friends used some website that writes papers for you, I worked hard and did everything myself. I have succeeded in getting high scores in all the necessary standardized test. And I can confess that now I feel completely exhausted. But I feel determined to work much harder and strenuously to achieve my ambition and here I am, writing my admission essay led by my choice.
I agree that we may seem to have certain options to choose from. But the matter is that I firmly believe that mostly we do not choose, we fight our way against the destiny’s choice. But during the fight we sometimes reconsider our aims. However, I feel strongly that this time the choice of mine is something I will never reconsider.