MY GOALS

(1st place)

 By Shy Lopez, 7th grade, East Valley Middle School

    I’ve been thinking about my goals in life for years now. Like many kids I’ve wanted to be a rock star, cow girl, or an astronaut. But now as I become more mature, I have thought of some more realistic dreams. Seeing the sick, helpless kids has made me decide to go into medicine. My goal is to be a pediatrician. I want to help kids become healthy.

    I decided to be a pediatrician about 2 years ago. Seeing the kids struggle has always broken my heart, and my dream is to help them. Being a pediatrician is not a simple thing. Not only do you have to go to school, but you have to have patients, control and good people skills. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Handling crying kids or babies for hours on end can get very crazy.

    The first step for achieving my goal is learning in school now, and getting the best education I can. Middle school can be tough. There are so many things going on; boy drama, friend drama, and of course mean teachers. But getting a good education at a young age will help you further your life later on. I have tried hard in school and have maintained a 4.0 GPA for 2 years now.

    Being a pediatrician is going to take a lot of focus and patience. I will have to attend college for 11 years, not including internship. I want to go to a good college and from what I have learned North Carolina offers the best education for doctors.                  Getting into a good college is hard; I plan on getting a scholarship for sports or academics. After the schooling, I am going to start my internship at a local hospital or office. This may affect my social life a bit since I will be finishing school around the age of 32. But I am willing to wait for my life to be stable before thinking about a family.

    When I get my degree I plan on either opening my own local office somewhere in Idaho, or I want to travel to Africa to help the kids there. If I open my own office, I want to move to a nice neighborhood and start my family there. The other option is to travel to countries less fortunate and help the kids there with diseases or sicknesses. As I get older I might think about another option, but for now that is it.

    These are the things I want to accomplish throughout my life. I want to start now in school and try my hardest and then go on a get a better education. I will try my hardest to achieve these things, and I want to do good for myself. I will have many choice and decisions later on to make, but for now I am just going to focus on learning, having fun, and being a kid.