How Medicine Chose Me

2007 (Yup, 13. Lol, I was such a terrible basketball player. Soccer ball please!)







2018 (10 yrs later! 23)







Hello everyone! I thought it'd be fitting for you to get to know a little more about me, so I am going to share about how medicine chose me (but essentially how God gave me a dream). Medicine chose me because when I learned that I could be a doctor, I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else. No one told me to do anything in particular, no one in my family is a physician, and honestly, I really didn't know what I was doing. But from that moment forward, every decision I made was to ensure that I could learn more about medicine and one day achieve that goal. So let's go back to 7th grade Ariel, to the ages of myspace, AIM, neon fashion, rubber band bracelets that went up to your elbows, and when the song 'Cyclone' topped the charts.


I have always been a dreamer. When I was in preschool, I decided I wanted to be the first Latina astronaut in space. I loved playing dress up, imagining myself as the most beautiful princess as well, but my biggest role models and heroes were Mae Jemison (first African American woman in space), Sally Ride (first woman in space), queen Cleopatra of ancient Egypt (because she was a leader and woman with power, and yes, now I understand the full extent of the controversy of her rule, lol), and Mia Hamm (a cool young teenage world-class athlete when I first heard about her, who later held the record for most international goals scored, by a man or a woman until 2013).


Later in life, the middle school age were pivotal years for me. I asked myself a lot of existential questions, and started wondering about the purpose of life. When I was 12, I was in the minivan with my mom, looking at myself outside the rear-view mirror and I realized that I existed on this planet, on this Earth. I was baffled by the fact that I was alive. But what did that really mean? What did it mean to be alive? Why was I here? How was I here? What is my role in this world because I am here? With these thoughts brewing in my mind, I walked the halls of my junior high, enjoyed the newfound freedom and grown-up feeling of having my own locker, switching classes, having a larger math textbook, and learning science that was actually interesting.

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In 7th grade biology, learning about the circulatory system, I had a life-changing thought in that class. I realized that "The human body is the most beautiful, artistic, fascinating and genius creation. God, you are amazing." And I just fell in love. I was amazed. Floored, thrilled, excited. I was like WOAH. This is what is happening inside of ME?! Inside of all of us?! I'm alive because of this amazing human body stuff?! And that was a really cool moment. We had learned about other human body systems before then, but for some reason, the circulatory system brought it all together. In addition, it was exciting to begin to be in awe of God and his creativity and perfect design of our bodies!! Anyway, I walked out to lunch that day thinking it would be really cool to help someone else with their body systems if they weren't working in their proper, beautiful, and perfect way. In my head, that obviously meant that one day I will need to become a surgeon.


Fast forward to a few years later when I was choosing a college. I had set my mind on studying biochemistry bc in high school, I discovered that my love for mathematical principles and puzzles could be applied to chemistry, and that I could learn about the chemistry that made biology and human body systems work. I was sold and extremely ecstatic.


Again, I don't really know where this drive/dream/motivation/calling came from (except of course from God, haha), but all I know is that I applied to college and I knew I wanted to go to a school with a great science department, and pre-med program, where I could do research, and go to med school right after college. And in fact, the years went by and that's what happened. I shadowed doctors in college, met amazing mentors, went on medical trips, did research and surgical internships, and the dream of medicine continued to be confirmed. No matter how much I had to sacrifice, how much I had to study, my dream of medicine kept me working and fighting for my dream. My dream of being a surgeon fueled me to sleep 3 hours every night for 2 years straight, to do well in my classes. My dream of being a surgeon is what fueled me to be okay with drinking 5 cups of coffee a day; it's what fueled me to take the MCAT after my sophomore year, and apply to med school after my junior year. My first day of college, I was in a room of 250 students all aspiring for medical school, and they told us that being science majors would be hard. In every new class in college, every pre-med club, meeting, or internship I was a part of, every doctor said only a few of us would still want to do this. Every doctor told me that medicine is really hard, and you should do something else, because you can't do it unless you love it. My last day of college, there were 6 of us who decided to still apply to medical school.


It wasn't a perfect journey. There were hard challenges including setbacks in grades, the fact that the college I went to is tiny and not well-known, emotional family issues, a disappointing MCAT score, insecurities about whether I was cut out for med school and whether med schools would accept me. All the time, I was worried and anxious. I also cried a lot (I think you're getting a theme here, that crying happens a lot in my normal life. Lol). There was nothing more I wanted in my life than to learn about the human body, and treat and care for other people, and I worked (and prayed) and gave it all I had to achieve that dream.


And now many, many learnings later, I'm here! And still learning, still worrying, still crying (more tears than ever, lol), still growing, and still dreaming. Med school is 100% stressful, hard, challenging, takes the life out of me, draining, exhausting, demanding, all-consuming, exponentially more sacrifice-requiring, but I can 100% say that I am living a life that I only imagined in my wildest dreams. There are many days I wake up and can't believe I get to live this life.


And I CANNOT, CANNOT, and will NEVER be able to say that I did this on my own. I did this with God's help. He laid out the path for me, and I followed it. He gave me the dream, and I followed it. And in my spiritual journey in college, I remember having an amazing prayer near the creek by my parent's home, where I was finally able to surrender my dream of medicine to God. I told Him, "Lord, if you allow me to go into medicine, amen, I love you FOREVER, OMGGGGGGGGG. But if you don't, it doesn't matter, because my first and most important job is to be your disciple, your daughter, your hands and feet in the world. I will praise you with whatever profession you allow me to serve you best in, because I know you only have the very best planned for me." Ultimately, God blessed this 13 year-old dream of mine, and I am now extremely grateful to God for the opportunity to tap into His intellectualism, to learn about His creativity, and to learn how to heal others.


So yay! I look forward to writing more for all of you and sharing more stories, and more learnings through my time in med school. Send me a msg if you'd like me to talk about something specific, or if you have more questions. I'll get back to you as soon as I can!


Smiles, Ariel Ester


High Yield Takeaways:
Go after your dreams!!!! If you want something, go out there and do it. The world is your oyster, and if you want it bad enough, you're going to get there one day. Just keep working hard and:
Find people you look up to: mentors, peers, any random person who might be living the life you want to live (trust me, everyone loves talking about themselves and their life journey). They will share pearls of wisdom/opportunities with you, and be there when you need help!
DON'T GIVE UP. Ever. Not an option. Keep yourself motivated w motivating quotes, post-its, videos, music, etc.!
Ask questions!!!
Make sure that what you're doing is what you absolutely love <3 :)