A Rocky Road Ahead

Every race has multiple hurdles and every ambition has multiple hardships. Its difficult but not impossible.

Weekly Report 09/04/2017 to 09/10/2017

"There is no success without hardships."

This past week has been a physically and mentally demanding week with multiple tasks ahead. However, it was important to ensure that it was completed with an optimistic outlook, regardless of the stress of it all. The beginning of the week was initiated with the somewhat daunting task of delivering a speech; however, once I stepped onto the platform to deliver the speech, it didn’t seem as stressful. The speech flowed effectively, and it definitely altered from what was initially written on paper; however, the main concern was the speed with which the speech was spoken. Although aware of my tendency to speak at a fast pace, the nervousness was a factor that definitely made me disregard the fact that the rate at which the speech was spoken was very fast. Yet, the experience was an opportunity to learn and ensure that future speeches are refined in order to constructively work towards the twenty-five minute speech for final presentation night. As a result, future speeches will be worked on to slow down the speed at which speeches are spoken and organized in a way that ensures that the audience is not left at a cliff hanger.

In addition, this past week was the beginning of the process of approaching mentors and gaining a deeper insight into the topics of interest through the career outlook assessment. The first obstacle encountered was the difficulty in finding neurosurgeons in the local area that were specialized in brain diseases. Many neurosurgeons specialized in spine in addition to brain diseases, but not necessarily the diseases that my topic interests lie in, which are Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or even epilepsies and seizures in children. However, 25 neurosurgeons specialists were found in addition to contacting the mentor with which research was conducted over the summer in order to see if she had any connection with doctors from UT Southwestern that would be willing to mentor a high school student.

The assessment was a broad outlet towards gaining a much more deepened understanding into neurosurgery including basic job descriptions, salaries, years of schooling, and surgical procedures. It was intuitive to learn about various surgical procedures including stereotactic surgical procedures and the usage of the gamma knife which is a non-invasive process that can destroy unwanted tissue in part of the body. All the information gave a broad scope of information possibly required to approach a mentor and be knowledgeable on the topic to some degree before approaching a professional in the healthcare, professional sphere. Although prior to research it was known that neurosurgeons tend to have busy and unpredictable schedules, further researcher solidified the statement by setting another obstacle in attaining a mentor since most neurosurgeons work on urgent cases that require utmost mental focus. This instinctively makes is difficult to find a mentor that will be willing to teach and guide a high school student through the procedures conducted by the doctor.

Despite the fact that this week had an assortment of difficulties, it was most definitely important to be positive and persevere through the work load in order to keep working towards the ultimate end goal. As of now, the work load may be pressurizing, however, in the end it will all be worth it!