2011 Winner

In 2011, our “I Was Born In 1996” Scholarship topic was: “You were born in 1996. Tell us what will be going on in your life in 2026.” Here is the “I Was Born In 1996” Scholarship winner and winning scholarship response.

Click Clack: The steady sound of my footsteps echoing down the hall. Donning a white lab coat with clipboard in hand, I check the board to find out who I am operating on today. “Adams, H,” it says. I check my patient files and discover I'm performing a simple craniotomy to excise the area of the brain that is causing the patient's hippocampal sclerosis, a common procedure that takes about three hours to complete. I remember residency where no craniotomy ever finished before four hours - even the simple ones. Now, at 30, I have just completed my surgical residency and I practice at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco. Admittedly, I'm nervous about starting on my own. It's not as if I haven't performed surgeries by myself before, but this time my failures will fall on me. Not the chief resident, not my supervisor - me. In 2011, the younger more zealous me thought I'd be the best neurosurgeon this side of the Mississippi River. Can I live up to that expectation? As I step into surgery, all the nervous energy transforms into a mentality of diligence and dedication, thankfully so. I realize I can do this; after all, my teenaged self, husband, kids, and ScholarshipExperts.com who gave me $1,996 to fund my college education are all rooting for me.