Personal Statement: My Passion And Pursuit In Optometry

“We must walk faster before the sun goes down.” The boy understood the urgency of his father’s voice and picked up his pace. Phoon Pan, was one of Ban Vinai’s most well-known shaman and that night he and his youngest son was traveling by foot to visit an ill elderly who lived two villages away. Phoon was a dedicated shaman and a talented botanist as he concocted many herbal medicines for the wounded. As the boy watched his father night and day on many journeys, he saw his father’s sincere drive to help villagers. He learned that the result of helping others made the villages grow stronger as it rid the villages of illness and encouraged villagers to be resourceful for one another. My father’s father, Phoon, passed away in his beloved village. He was part of the last generation of shamans before the Hmong people came to the United States in the 1970s. Often when my father packed up is car to visit a sick relative in another city, I would ask to tag along and as I carefully selected which stuff animal to bring, he would gently

My passion and pursuit in optometry developed at an early age as a result of meeting countless number of people who suffered with poor or loss of vision due to their illness. As a child I could not grasp how one illness evoked another, it was only when I learned about the science behind the human body that I seriously began analyzing my childhood experiences. Further studies in Biology and Chemistry allowed me to develop analytical skills and Physics and Math promoted my deduction skills in following logical processes to infer results. I have learned that the history of optometry is a heroic narrative that speaks of a similar quest to identify the links that connects these health issues to eye disease; therefore, I have built an overwhelming sense of belonging to this