When I was in middle school, my mother had a brain tumor that caused her to black out often, but because of the frequent emesis that came with it, no doctors listened to her complaints of headaches and suggested that she stop eating such “spicy indian food” and opt for healthier options instead. After several ER visits and continued blackouts, one doctor out of the several who treated my mom finally decided to try a brain MRI and found a tumor the size of a golf ball at the base of her skull. It would’ve killed her had it not been removed in time and burst instead. Since then, my mother has gotten better but my faith in the American healthcare system and doctors is irrecoverably broken which is why I have dedicated myself to a career in patient advocacy and public health. No one should be cast aside or neglected the way my mother was just because an overworked health professional is unable to make the right call or listen to their patients; and I am working to better educate myself to prevent similar things from happening to people who aren’t as fortunate as my mother because proper healthcare is a human right.

I have IBS and it interferes with life when I have a flare up.

Not easy to deal with during the school year.

I had a difficult time my freshman year of college, adjusting to living in a new place, being around new people, and struggling with classes all at the same time. I think that if I was only experiencing one of the three things above I would have faced less mental health issues, but since I was really struggling to be motivated in school, being in an unfamiliar environment definitely escalated my issues. I found it hard to open up to my new friends about how I was feeling since I felt like they were having a good college experience and I didn’t want to burden them with my problems. Looking back, I’m so glad I managed to make it through that year and go back to college for my sophomore year because things got significantly better my second year. I think knowing that I had made it through such a hard time, coming back to school already familiar with my environment and being much closer to my friends, made my college experience way better. Even now when I’m going through rough patches in school I think about how much better things are now than they were 2 years ago and it helps me have a more positive outlook on my life.

Middle school wasn't easy for me. Not because of classes, but because the people at school suddenly knew how to use their words, and they had opted to use them against me. It was in middle school that a boy made fun of me for having a moustache, it was in middle school that my entire class seemed to turn against me because I was good at studies, it was in middle school that a girl told me I was a ***** whose face resembled that of a pig, and that I only had friends because they wanted to leach off of my academic success. I feel we sometimes dismiss the struggles of children, as though they couldn't possibly have experienced anything truly relevant in the time they've been alive. But middle school wasn't easy, and it left scars on me that I still continuously discover and have to work to heal at age 20.

Being an Indian-American kid is awesome! My parents came from India to chase their dreams, and they're totally rocking it! They're always working on exciting projects and it makes me want to dream big and make my own mark on the world too. School can be tricky sometimes, but I've learned that it's okay to face challenges. I enjoy discovering new things and figuring out what I excel at. The best part is getting to learn about my Indian heritage while experiencing all the amazing opportunities America has to offer. It feels like I have two huge backpacks filled with adventures! This gives me the confidence to aim high, no matter what. Even though I'm young, I'm eager to make a positive impact. I want to help people feel happy and confident. My parents believe I can achieve anything I set my mind to, and I believe them too! I can't wait to see what exciting adventures await me and how I can use my skills to contribute to making the world a better place.

I've always been interested in academics and in school I try to do my best work so I feel confident in my learning. When it comes to group projects in school, I've never been the strongest advocate. It's not that I dislike community or working with other people, but I don't enjoy having to delegate certain tasks to people or working with people who I know won't contribute to everyone else. There was one time where I was doing a biology project and I was paired with 3 other guys. We just had to make a slideshow explaining one phenomena we learned in the year in detail. When it came to actually working with them though, I felt like I couldn't express my ideas or provide a clear plan of how we should split up the work. When I tried to say how we should each take a section of the slideshow, I ended having to take on majority of the work, like finding almost all the information and creating the slides. They became unresponsive to my emails and other questions, even when we met in class. I told my teacher but she didn't take any action, so I ended up completing the presentation mostly by myself. Later, I heard them talking to one another about how they heard I had told my teacher and they were complaining that I hadn't even done that much work. I was jut being whiny. When we got back our grade, which was good, they ended up taking a lot of the credit for what I had done. It's frustrating to constantly be ignored by the people around you when you know that you put in so much effort and you don't get the recognition you deserve. My teacher didn't even seem to care.