Meltdown

There are some mornings when it's all you can do to pull yourself out of bed & drag yourself to work. This was one of those mornings.

I had a minor meltdown last night, because after 2 weeks of working on this one damned essay (1 page in length), I got feedback from my sister saying that I'll have to rewrite it--again. The essay is most definitely "overworked," as my sister said, but what choice do I have? I have to turn it in soon--the clock's a-ticking. She suggested either putting it aside until after my interview w/Baylor this weekend, or sending in an earlier draft (pretty much the same essay that I posted a few weeks ago about being a twin). >: (

This is the prompt (it's for Stanford):

The Committee on Admissions regards the diversity of an entering class as an important factor in serving the educational mission of the school. The Committee on Admissions strongly encourages you to share unique, personally important, and/or challenging factors in your background, such as the quality of your early educational environment, socioeconomic status, culture, race, ethnicity, or life or work experiences. Please discuss how such factors have influenced your goals and preparation for a career in medicine. (Please limit your answer to 2,000 characters including spaces.)

And this is what I had by the end of the weekend:

One of my favorite pastimes while growing up next to the picturesque town of Princeton, NJ, was watching people parade down its main thoroughfare as they frequented the tony shops and eateries that lined Nassau Street. They led the kind of life that my parents had envisioned for my sister and me when they immigrated to the United States from Taiwan. What my parents had not anticipated was the prejudice we would face because of our foreign background. Because I was born here, English was my first language. Nevertheless, when strangers would hear my perfectly unaccented speech for the first time, the surprised looks on their faces betrayed their lower expectations of me based on my appearance. I learned to emulate the grace with which my parents handled the bias they encountered in this country and in Taiwan, where, as native Taiwanese, they were treated as second-class citizens under the repressive Nationalist government. From such experiences, I developed a keen sense of justice that fuels my desire to extend equal opportunities to the underserved in the form of quality healthcare. Being an identical twin has given me a perspective on how it feels to be overlooked. People often confused my sister and me while growing up, because we seemed to be the same through and through, sharing the same looks, abilities, and interests. I grew accustomed to thinking of myself as one half of a pair and allowed that image to confine me to the same activities as my sister. It was not until college, with our decision to attend different schools, that I was able to develop into an individual separate from my sister. Through my struggle to stand apart on my own merits, I came to value the unique hopes and fears that reside in each individual, waiting to be unlocked. As a physician, I intend to treat the mental and physical ailments that prevent people from disadvantaged backgrounds from fulfilling their individual promise.

Feel free to call it "weak," because that's what everyone else has said who's read it so far.

Whatever, I had a pretty good weekend otherwise. Aki had me over for dinner on Saturday and it was restaurant-quality. Here's the menu:

Starter course:
Romaine salad with shrimp & honey-balsamic dressing, accompanied by rosemary-olive oil bread.

Main course:
Miso-glazed chicken breast over green beans dressed in a ginger-soy sauce.

Dessert:
Strawberry shortcake: ladyfingers soaked in light rum, topped with strawberries in syrup & whipped cream. Served with jasmine tea.

I think it goes without saying that it was delicious.

Then we watched half of Yi-Yi, a heart-warming drama about a family living in Taipei. At first we didn't know what was going on, because the picture was too big to fit the screen, so most of the subtitles were getting cut off at the bottom. But after playing around w/the TV remote, we got the picture down to size. See? We're not so helpless.

The highlights of the weekend were the food & the weather. We had gorgeous early-fall weather--warm, sunny, dry days and cool nights. Okay, sorry--I'm not trying to make anyone feel jealous (Jois). Sunday night I made fried rice and shrimp sauteed w/green beans. I also got Edy's slow-churned vanilla ice cream @ the supermarket for $1.99. I had it @ Aki's and it's really good--you can't even tell it's low-fat. Actually, I bought it at $5.69 on Friday, but it went on sale the next day, so I took my tub back, returned it, and bought it again at the lower price. They don't do price adjustments at the supermarket, apparently.

Okay, this post was horribly overdue & I'm afraid my next one won't come until after I return from Houston.

My boss is going to be away for the next 2 weeks, so that means mini-vacation for me (sort of). Ha ha, I'm such a rebel.