Upon completing the academic side of my degree, I decided that there would be no better place to complete my internship than from directly gaining direct experience by interacting with patients, further my skill set, and gaining invaluable experiences from a hospital all summer. For the next several months, the other interns and I acquired valuable hands-on experience by assisting patients in the Cardiac …show more content…
Three weeks before I was set to begin my freshman year at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC, I was awoken by the incomprehensible image of my father lying in bed, while the EMTs tried everything they could, but to no avail.
While adapting to the new, rigorous demands of the college academics required to obtain a science degree, I almost found myself going through a period of deep grief, significantly affecting my coursework during the first semester and freshman year. I had failed the Biology class, which certainly did not look very good, causing doubt to creep in my mind. That summer I owned up to my mistakes, realized there was still time to flip my unfortunate circumstances into a source of personal motivation, and rebounded to make the Dean’s and/or President’s list for my final consecutive seven semesters!
Entering my sophomore year, I was still unsure of which path to choose, until my ophthalmologist suggested he could see me becoming a physician assistant. I thought to myself that I have never heard of that, but soon after I realized PAs were everywhere! During medical visits, it seemed that every time someone walked in the room their name had a PA-C, stitched into their white