Dear Diary

Professional: Four-eyes.

“Four-eyes!” screamed the kids in my third grade class. As if it was not hard enough getting use to these goofy looking things on my face, I had to deal with these bullies too. I hated glasses and thought they were unnecessary and stupid. For god sakes I was in the third grade and I had bad vision already. But when I couldn't read the chalk board and kept walked into ridiculous objects, I gave in. I never felt safe when I couldn’t see everything clearly. So from there on out, I never complained because I was lucky enough to see life clearly. When I was in middle school and could actually remember going in for an eye exam, I was unusually excited to see my Optometrist. I walked inside and saw all sorts of interesting gadgets. Things that shot air puffs, displayed a visual road, big machines with various knobs on them, some short of weird chart, and medicated drops. This was my optometrist’s office. I found all these items lying before me to be so fascinating. This was when I knew I wanted to research optometry and the eye itself. My mom would always yell at me not to watch television so closely, not to read sideways and too always eat a lot of carrots. I have always been very driven and known that Optometry was for me. Even after shadowing optometrists and learning more about this field, I know that I want to challenge myself in this career and can see myself doing this for the rest of my life. The field of Optometry is steadily expanding, and Optometrists can screen for and even diagnose Glaucoma, Diabetes, Hypertension and Atherosclerosis just by examining the eyes. Eyes are the first thing that I notice when I meet someone and the last thing I remember when I walk away from them, even if they have big funny looking glasses on their face. I feel like it is the portal to some one's soul and an important body part that people tend to forget and take for granted. I feel like there are always new things to learn about optometry, vision related issues and diseases.

Personal: Let’s Dance!

The lights were dim. I wanted to scratch so badly but I had to keep my pose. I had no idea what the costume was made out of but it sure irritating. The curtains could have been pulled up at any second. It happened. All I could see were the bright stage lights. The music began and the rest of the girls started dancing. We have rehearsed this scene of the Nutcracker a million times before. I could do it in my sleep. The music, the costumes, and the rush of being on stage was so exhilarating. Watching the professional dancers from the sidelines was so unreal. I still remember my first Nutcracker performance like it was yesterday. My form of de-stressing and a hobby of mine has always been dance. Ballet is a great form of exercising and such a beautiful art. I danced for six years starting from when I was eleven. I loved to go to practice and it was something that I always looked forward to. Although my legs and muscles would be sore, I knew that it was well worth it the next day. Running everyday and eating healthy eventually became apart of my life, which is something I lack here in college. Whenever I was in a studio or on a dance floor, nothing else mattered to me, just the movements, expressions and the music. It was not considered exercising just because I enjoyed it so much. I eventually stopped because of studying and applying to college. However, since I have been at UCSD, I have taken advanced ballet, contemporary dance and jazz. I am going to continue my dancing because I feel like I am a better person when I am active. I would also love to learn other new forms of dance. It has always been a dream of mine to learn how to do Ballroom and Salsa dancing. Dancing always helped me focus on school work I am just overall more happy when I have some time in a dance studio.