I spent the entire month of August in the hospital at my grandmother's bedside. His fingers felt limp and offered no resistance when I squeezed them. Sometimes, when I felt a slight, almost imperceptible pressure, I looked at his face. He opened his eyes to meet my gaze moments before the muscles in his face twitched, as if in pain. His eyes closed in a final grimace, and I sat in silence as I felt each inhalation come several seconds after the last. When I was five years old, I started to look at this as my grandmother's reference point. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In the months leading up to receiving chemotherapy, I would lie next to her as she taught me to read. His hair eventually grew thin in the weeks I learned to write. He showed me how to prepare simple meals for myself as the nausea and discomfort became more frequent. His worsening health wasn't something I was very aware of when I was young; all I knew was that my grandmother had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and I had absolutely no fear. His body appeared frail and weak, but I believed he was getting stronger with age, just like me. Through my early exposure to this inevitable pain and suffering, I learned how to spread compassion and kind support to others in life. Overall, I would say this marked the beginning of my passion for medicine. I began my college career without having any idea what a physician assistant was. In fact, I started out as a biology major to become a dentist having no real passion or interest in that occupation. My sister had been successful as a dentist and I simply knew that I wanted to be successful in the healthcare industry as well. Unfortunately, the lack of passion reflected negatively on my grades. I felt lost and dissatisfied with what I was doing and lost focus on academics. I knew change had to happen and I was eager to find the right path for myself. I started with the first contact I had and shadowed a plastic surgeon in an operating room (OR). The team performed deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) flap surgery for a post-mastectomy patient. I distinctly remember the surgeon and his colleague isolating the deep inferior epigastric vessels, extracting the artery for subsequent anastomosis to the chest, and raising the flap since the abdominal muscles were mostly preserved. Several hours passed and we left the operating room for a break while I socialized with the staff. I asked the surgeon's colleague about her career and past experiences as a doctor. To my surprise, he quickly clarified that he was not a doctor; she was a physician assistant (PA). Then he told me about his many years of experience in family medicine and cardiology. I was initially confused, but once he continued to explain how much time he had invested in different specialties, I felt something click in my mind. I was impressed not only by the responsibility she took on during the procedure, but also by the flexibility of her career. He enlightened me about several challenging opportunities that could arise from a single occupation. Since then, I have viewed the profession as an incredible opportunity for growth and advancement. Soon after, I started shadowing more PAs through primary care clinics and volunteering, which motivated me to change my specialty. There was an immediate improvement in my grades and my.