A Different Type Of Office

by Michael Pitt

July 12, 2002

Please give a personal statement (no more than two pages) that will help the medical school admissions committee learn about you.

I hated the doctor's office. Most kids put a heating pad on their forehead so they could fake illness and stay home from school. When I'd have a fever, I'd use a damp cloth to cool myself down so I could go. I knew it shouldn't be that way. I shouldn't be afraid of the doctor.

This is why I have always known that I wanted to be a pediatrician. My goal is to make the experience for children enjoyable. My office will be different. Beanbag chairs instead of couches. The Disney Channel instead of CNN. Coloring books instead of Newsweek. All patients will be given a prescription for candy when they walk in with the instructions to "Take two M&M's and call me in the morning." The focus will be on the child from the moment he or she walks in the office.

I fear that too often, people are given their certification solely because they can pass a test and make it through the necessary training. I know many premed students who only speak science, which may be the language among doctors, but often intimidates and confuses the patient. While I do feel that a love and respect for science is paramount in the development of a good doctor, I feel that all too often the love and respect of the patients is lost within this quest. I wish to treat children, not diseases. This is the primary reason that I have chosen, unlike a vast majority of my premed classmates, to major in English as opposed to a science. While having scored in the 97th percentile on the MCAT coupled with my performance in all of the math and science classes I have taken shows that I have the necessary understanding of science required for a career in medicine, it is my passion for communication and people that will shine through me as a doctor.

This same balance is something that I have striven to attain with my involvement in the community. Rather then focusing exclusively on volunteering that is centered on medicine, I have tried to spend as much time as possible working with the medium of the pediatric field - kids. Since the age of eight I have done magic professionally and have been able to use this talent to entertain children. The true magic is not in correctly identifying the card that was chosen, but in being able to momentarily suspend belief for a child; being able to make them feel that anything is possible. After I can convince them of this, it is much easier for them to accept that they too can defy the impossible. This interaction with children, which has led to a heightened understanding of how they think, is something that cannot be taught in a classroom. It is an education that does not stop with the framing of a diploma. It continues daily.

One particular day stands out to me. I was making rounds doing magic at the Children's Hospital in my hometown, and I came to a room of a boy with cancer. His left eye was swollen shut with a tumor, and his right could barely be opened, but even so it lit up with excitement after the first trick. I sat by his bed doing magic until he'd seen more of my act than most of my close friends. He was the first person that I ever taught how to do a trick, after he had taken the oath that it would be our secret. When I promised him that I would come back soon and teach him another trick, a huge smile appeared on his face, and tears formed in his parents' eyes.

He died that week.

That day . . . that smile, has taught me that a career in pediatric medicine is not merely a career in science, it is a career in people. It is imperative to remember that while in the lab I am dealing with the illness of a child, in the room I am dealing with a child who is ill. It is my hope that this belief is not unique to me, but is universal to all - for it is based on this belief that a doctor's office evolves from a place that is dreaded by patients, to one that is embraced by children.

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