How Tennis Changed My Life

Every time someone asked about what I wanted to do when I grew up, I said that I wanted to be a doctor. The truth is that when submitting my college application, I questioned myself if that was really what I wanted and what I was passionate about. I didn’t feel that passion at the time and was a little skeptical that medicine was my calling, but shadowing in the oncology unit of the Pediatric Hospital changed my mind.

The experience was eye opening. I saw all these children with cancer in need of medical attention, but filled with hope that their cancer was going to be cured. It was difficult to see their pain, but it made me realize that as the doctors I shadowed, I also wanted to make a difference in their lives by doing everything in my

That was when I started playing tennis, to escape all the academics and to have a time to decompress. At first it was just a hobby, but then I discovered that I loved and was really good in it. Tennis became my second passion in less than two months. I started playing in a league and my team started winning. I loved the euphoria of all and the best part was that tennis did not compromised my grades. On the contrary, when I started playing my organic chemistry grades started increasing progressively. After a year, organic chemistry ended, but I was hooked with tennis. It has become a part of who I am. Yes, I’m the one that wants to study medicine and excel in my field, but I’m, also, the one that loves to play tennis and represent Puerto Rico in my category. I’m a little heartbroken that when in med school, time for tennis will be quite limited, but I’m, also, trilled that at last I will be so much to achieve my lifetime goal to study medicine and become a doctor. I know that my love for medicine will last forever and that’s why that medicine is and will be “… my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest” as W. H. Auden wrote, but let’s not forget Saturdays, because Saturdays are for