What made you want to become a doctor?

In Junior High School I started wrestling because my older brother was a wrestler and I was too small to play football and too short to play basketball. In my six years of wrestling I competed in weight classes ranging from 77 to 130 pounds. I'm not very big, as I already mentioned. Wrestling taught me grit, determination, hard work, courage and general stick-to-itiveness (yes, I made that up), but also came with a lot of pain and suffering. Looking back, most of the suffering was unneccesary and avoidable which is what makes me so passionate about certain things now.

For anyone familiar with the sport, there are weight classes and it is incredibly common to "cut weight" or lose weight to wrestle in a lower weight class. My first three years were devoid of this unfortunate reality but I eventually got my share of experience with cutting weight. There is incredible pressure on adolescent athletes, some internal and some external. I was extremely driven to succeed, as were most of my teammates and on top of that, the team counted on me to "make weight" so I could participate and represent the team. The desire and willpower to make weight and compete were completely intact, but my knowledge of how to do so was severely lacking.

Without belaboring the point, I developed several poor weight management habits out of sheer ignorance. I remember cutting out all sources of water from my diet except for small sips here and there before a wrestling match. As one can imagine, it was difficult to pay attention in class as I day dreamed about cool, clear waterfalls, to connect with my family and friends, or to enjoy life in general. One weekend I remember eating only a handful of baby carrots and some ice. It was terrible, to say the least. I didn't know any better and neither did my family, so we thought we were doing what had to be done. 

Wrestling was the beginning of my personal experience with depression, anxiety and planted the initial seeds of empathy for mental health patients. On top of the mental and emotional challenges I face (or perhaps because of them) I also dealt with physical symptoms. During my last year of wrestling I had knee surgery on my left meniscus, exacerbated by poor wrestling technique. At the time, wrestling seemed so important to me that I couldn't step back and see how it might affect me down the road. Adolescence is such a great time for growth and learning but it's also a vulnerable time. I wish someone would have sat me down and taught me how to change some behaviors before I had to live through the consequences. 

On the bright side, I suppose, my surgery exposed me to the hospital, the operating room, physical therapy and the medical world in general. I had always had an interest in biological sciences, so I was fascinated by the experience. Medicine, it seemed, was the perfect amalgamation of my interest in science and my passion to make a difference and prevent unnecessary heartache. My interest in science was important to get me started down the path, but so far it has been my passion for making a difference that has helped me stick it out.