Personal statement editing
Edit/rewrite the below personal statement by improve the grammar and the quality of the paper.
One. Two. Three. Silence. Curtains open. Spotlight on the kid. Music starts. Get the next kid ready for his cue. Witness the play that I spent months writing and directing can finally unfold itself in astonishing harmony. I can see the audience tear up. I hear them chuckle at the nuances of comedy threaded with human drama. Through a team of kid actors, I can taste a sip of the power of creation.
In high school, I began volunteering for the Drama team in my local community. I was the writer and director of the team for almost 10 years. I watched my kids, how they glowed on stage. Reciting long dialogues, performing complex emotions, bringing life to characters that once were just ideas in my imagination. I am forever in awe of their resilience. I saw their crooked teeth, pushed confidence in them during their ugly duckling phase, and helped them to overcome their thumb-sucking habit by acting. I told a kid she is still pretty enough to be the lead even if she is wearing braces. I reassured them when they shed a tooth during rehearsals. I protected their avulsed teeth after a fall on the stage. I got hugged by a mother after telling her that her son didn’t have a speech disability, it was just a tongue tie.
Smelling like Eugenol from the endo sealer, I would be standing on the stage holding rehearsals after finishing work in my father’s dental office in Alexandria, Egypt, a city known for inspiring artists. Smelling like Eugenol, my father was always on the first row attending my play, after a long day at work. From my place behind the curtains, I was always able to see the pride in his eyes for me as a director and writer as much as being a dentist.
As a healthcare professional, my father was keen on teaching me how to care for people. He encouraged me to take part in volunteering services with the church from a young age and take every opportunity to help my family, friends, and the community at large. He was certain that my volunteer work in underdevelopment communities and theater will nourish my compassion, commitment, and creativity. Therefore, he was supportive, when I decided during dental school to spend a whole summer in a small town called Goiania in Brazil to work with an NGO to teach teenagers about soft skills, other cultures, and practice English.
The most valuable thing, that my father taught me is to aspire for greatness and never settle for less. He grew up in a small town in the countryside of Egypt, and after settling in the city of Alexandria he grew to own not one, but two large dental offices. I learned from his passion and dedication daily. While I was in my final year in dental school at Misr University for Science and Technology, one of the most prestigious universities in Egypt, I gave no second thought to joining a Fellowship in Laser Dentistry with Genoa University Italy. I wanted to learn how we can use Lasers to provide less traumatic treatments for children and young adults. That program was intended for postgraduates, however after supervising my clinical work closely, and evaluating my knowledge of periodontology and the fundamentals of laser dentistry, I was deemed eligible for the fellowship by the recommendation of my school’s associate dean. I was the youngest in my class and had to simultaneously study for the senior year’s final exams. With persistence and hard work, I was able to finish the fellowship in under one year while excelling in my remaining courses. I finished school and began working with my father to manage both practices and provide top-notch dentistry to our community while planning my future steps as a pediatric dentist.
However, I faced religious persecution as a Coptic Christian living in Egypt. The same oppression that drove my older brother to flee to the United States and achieve his dreams of becoming a dentist. This discrimination sometimes threatened my life and lead to a huge change in my path. I agreed with my father that it is better for me to move to another country and fulfill my dreams as a pediatric dentist over there. I left my father to manage our dental offices alone. I left my family, my friends, my kids on the theater team, and the only life I ever knew to come to the land of golden opportunities. I came to the United States seeking asylum, while insistent that I would never give up on my goal of becoming a pediatric dentist. As often happens in life, things didn’t go exactly according to plan. On January 22nd, 2020, 6 months after I arrived in the USA, my father suddenly passed away. I had to return to Egypt to manage our dental offices while studying for NBDE II, so I would not miss that year’s cycle. I got another chance to be in his shoes and embrace everything I learned from him as a dentist. With my determination to achieve my American Dream and my father’s wedding band always hanged on a chain around my neck, I turned my grief for him into motivation to accomplish my dream. Our dream.
Like a standing ovation at an end of a play, it can’t be achieved by mere wishes. Interest alone is not enough to accomplish my goal. I understood from the very beginning that becoming a pediatric dentist was going to take dedication, hard work, and devotion. I look forward to participating in program, where I can expand my knowledge of pediatric dentistry and strengthen my clinical skills. I know this will be a challenging time, with many clinical experiences that I still need to learn about patient management and dental treatments in pediatrics, but I am up for the challenge. Throughout my journey in America, walking for 45 minutes to work as an orthodontic dental assistant or in dental school, even in the hardest of weeks with 8 exams within 7 days, working on the weekends, or in a clinical situation where it seemed patient health, my studies, and other factors were all against me, my will and determination to keep going attest to my willpower. I have come a long way. Like working in theater with kids, it is always a learning curve, that requires patience, passion, and aiming your creativity to the right direction. Purpose, kindness, dexterity, and perseverance are certainly qualities I have picked up along the way and ones that I am sure will aid in my future as a Pediatric Dentist.
