Six years ago, a challenging experience changed my life. In 2005, I underwent gastric bypass surgery, and due to major complications, I was left paralyzed from the waist down. I also suffered severe memory loss. I had almost no recollection of my childhood or my years in school, even my undergraduate college years. I also could not retain new information for more than a few minutes before I would forget.
It was traumatizing to find myself in such a helpless and crippling condition. I had gone from being an independent, optimistic student bound for graduate school to being fully dependent on care from my family every minute of every day.
Each day I found myself slipping into hopelessness. One day, in an effort to lift my spirits, my mother brought me a magazine to read. I scanned it to appease her, even though I knew her efforts were in vain. But, as if it were meant to be, an article on surviving life caught my attention. The author was also a young woman who had undergone an invasive surgery gone wrong. She wrote how she learned from her negative experience and fought every day to be healthy again. I decided to scour the Internet for similar articles and soon began writing my own piece about my struggle, in an effort to understand and resolve what had happened to me
Reading that article reignited my passion for writing and reminded me of the career I had begun to pursue in college: journalism. It reinvigorated my passion for writing. I stayed up late in the hospital reviewing newspaper and magazine articles I wrote while attending the University of La Verne. I had majored in print journalism and minored in public relations, and I graduated with double Honors in 2004.
During my hospital stay, I began taking photos from my bed, as well as, researching and writing new pieces. Journalism not only gave me hope, but it was a way for me to mentally escape the circumstances I found myself in. Each article sparked a determination within me and I saw myself moving away from the hopelessness of my condition. I was determined to regain my independence and physical strength.
Three years later, out of my wheelchair, I walked my first steps with the aid of a walker. Six months after that, I walked the mall with a cane.
My recovery still continues, but today I am gratefully in a position to where I do not have to depend on others to do everything for me.
I moved to Chicago a little over a year ago. My mom and I came to spend Christmas with newly married sister. However, my mother got chronically ill and we ended up moving to Chicago permanently. This unexpected move led me to discover DePaul University. Though my sister and her husband were attending the school, I knew almost nothing about it
I decided to apply to DePaul’s Journalism program for many reasons, but the main reason being the opportunities it offered for deeper learning and discourse with its renowned professors and some of Chicago’s top professional journalists.
Furthermore, I was excited by DePaul’s program emphasis on its students’ responsibility to contribute to their community. I strongly believe that journalism should be ethical, resourceful and informative. Journalists should not insult their readers with meaningless, monotonous stories. As a journalist when I am called upon to give my opinion, I will exercise great care in tactfully stating that opinion based on facts.
It is important to remember that every story affects someone, somewhere. And, one of the ways I hope to do my part in the field of journalism is by asserting my common ground with the listener or reader, not just providing aloof commentary on material that carries little to no meaning to me.
After graduating from DePaul, I hope to work for a medium-sized print or online publication. While I have not yet chosen my area of focus I want to work in, my goal is to become a journalist that will serve to inform and inspire the public with honesty and integrity.
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