Personal Narrative: Wrigley Field

As my father’s car bustled down the freeway, I was conflicted with emotions of fear and excitement. No twelve year old I knew had undergone what I was about to experience. Before I knew it, we had arrived. The automatic doors expanded as I neared them; my eyes instantly widened the same way I did when I took my first glance of Wrigley Field a couple months earlier. We finally reached our destination in a building that seemed like a maze: a particular office. The door opened and revealed a man looking down and smiling at me; “Ready to go Ishaan?, we have a lot to do!” This man was my uncle, Dr. Ojash Bhagwakar M.D., who declared and completed a major in biochemistry as an Illini 23 years ago. He took me on a round to see a dozen patients. Looking

back on it now, I had never realized how precise his ability to point out and connect the issues his patients were facing to lessons I was learning in my own Biology class. Ever since I finally Googled what the word “biochemistry” meant when he told me of his college days, I knew it was what I was going to pursue in the future.

In high school, math and science have always been the subjects that have kept me energetic regardless of what day in the week it was or how many hours of sleep I had the night before. The main reason why I was drawn to biochemistry program is because I was aware that there remain holes of knowledge that need to filled a rigorous science curriculum that would quench my curiousness. Although I had spent 4 years of studying biology, chemistry, and physics, my biggest ambition was to take a career path in which I could apply my proficiency these beautiful subjects to analyze and solve problems in the real world . The major’s name itself, biochemistry, encompasses coursework from my favorite branches fundamental science as well as courses that combine them to help the understanding of the field. I am indeed intending to take a pre-medicine route during my 4 years, and I simply could not pick a major that suited me more.