Soccer changed my attitude but this essay is beyond soccer. As a defender, my main objective is to prevent goals. Every time I let a goal pass by, the guilt and regret helped me grow as a better defender. This protector instinct changed the selfish boy who took the last Gatorade after the long game of soccer to a first line up who is willing to sacrifice his playing time for a potential player who needs more experience. One day, my coach asked me, “Junwoo, as a coach, I wanted to turn you guys into responsible men.
What do you want to be? ” This answer was easy. “I want to be a defender”. My coach replied, “for sports scholarship? ” I replied, “Soccer taught me team chemistry, but now I want to study pharmaceutical chemistry and be a protector of the human race. ” Many epidemics killed many innocent lives. At first, people were helpless, suffering from the odd pain. Epidemic such as Smallpox, Polio, and Cholera all took away many lives, but fortunately through research cures and vaccines were invented to help combat contagious diseases.
Polio for example caused much death, but even the survivors have to suffer from permanent disability. Dr. Jonas Sulk and Dr. Francis Thomas Jr. are the heroes that created the vaccine for polio and saved many lives. When a disease breaks out I want to be like these two men who can minimize the damage for the future generations. There are also other diseases and epidemics that took lives and yet to be cured. Disease such as HIV, SARS, and Ebola are all diseases without an effective cure.
HIV can be prevented from effective use of protection, but there are other diseases that are airborne or transmitted through polluted water. However, waterborne and airborne disease can spread exponentially especially where the environment is not hygienic as seen in many developing countries. By researching such disease and looking for the common genes that allow air or water transmission, I can not only increase my knowledge in epidemics but also find chemicals or drugs that can prevent such disease from spreading via uncontrollable medium.
The world has become a smaller place. Even at airports, the customs are wary about passengers that came from the outbreak origin. Regardless of being infected or not, many innocent passengers are quarantined for these reasons. This is a conflict between national security and human rights, therefore it is a forced compromise that is controversial. However, with research I believe there will be alternatives to prevent airborne or waterborne disease from spreading with more efficacy than a simple CDC instruction of proper hand washing.
Some say that my choice of major goes against my protector instinct. I am not ignorant. I know that pharmaceutical companies are now Empires. There are many ethical questions revolving this industry. Some say that Adderall is important for ADD, some say it has become a problem due to abuse. There are pain killers that truly help someone, yet the societal abuse of pain killers also gave birth to substitute opiates which are also controversial. However, these ethical questions do not affect me since my goal is to prepare for the potential outbreak of new disease.
This summer Ebola stole many lives in Western Africa. The Walking Dead despite its fictional scenario could possibly break out without a warning. By studying medicine and disease with a degree related to medicinal chemistry, I will research, prepare, and standby under any circumstance like the pilot of Air Force One. I admit I am not the best soccer player, but I will minimize the damage while blocking the attack from the disease. Who knows maybe during research I might accidentally find a revolutionary cure like Penicillin or help find men’s lost confidence like Viagra.
