Well it’s another New Year’s Eve spent at home except this time I’m jumping between Counter-Strike Source and First Aid USMLE Step I. In retrospect, 2009 was an incredibly unusual year because of the amount of free time I had. Once school started, I quickly become occupied with trying to get back into the swing of things. Read more  

So between watching King James and company destroy the Lakers in Los Angeles, reading some First Aid, and watching Rain Man for the millionth time (in honor of the late Kim Peek), Christmas was pretty uneventful. In fact, with each passing year, holidays seem to mean less and less.

Many of my classmates finally had the opportunity to go back home and visit their family/friends, but as a commuter from home, that’s a daily occurrence for me. Probably why winter breaks seem to be more focused on “doing what I always do when I have free time” rather than warm, fuzzy moments with the family.

I just love seeing everyone so cheery this time of the year.

The last time it snowed in Houston was probably the most memorable day of my life – I received “the call” from Baylor Med. Almost exactly a year later, so much has changed. I’ve started this voyage. I’ve met some incredible people. And I finally got to see 12 days (if you have to ask, you don’t need to know). Read more  

21 was a great age for me. I got into my dream medical school, earned a lot of money in the stock market, made some new friends at Baylor Med, etc. Thanks to everyone for their wishes! Read more  

I’ve been in my closet for most of the afternoon cleaning out my grade school and undergrad work in preparation for medical school. I came across several things which I had little reason to keep, but I wanted to still photograph them for the sake of memories. Among these was a composition I wrote in 3rd grade which ended up being displayed at the district administration building. The topic – why is your elementary school the best in the world?

One day, my class was having a contest requiring us to write a certain kind of composition which had many similarities to an Informative Classificatory, or a compare and contrast composition. When my teacher, Mrs. Schell, assigned it, everyone moaned because we had not done a composition in a very long time. It had to be about why our school is the best in the world. I went home and started right away.

One reason my school is the best in the world is because of our mascot. It is a red tailed hawk which was adopted on April 26, 1996 and it is flying in New Mexico right now. Something really mysterious is that when we go outside, we see hawks soaring over our school, but that only happens once in a while.

A second reason my school is the best in the world is because of the Student Council. We had a pickle sale to make money in order for us to adopt our hawk. We also have fund raisers so we can buy more things for our school, and we can decide what kind of fund raisers we want to have.

The third and most important reason that my school is the best in the world is because of our wonderful teachers. They prepare us for unbelievable tests, and they explain everything perfectly. They are always there if you need any help. There are tons of other things to say about Jeanette Hayes Elementary’s awesome teachers.

After I was done, I took my composition to school and gave it to my teacher. The next day my teacher, Mrs. Schell, told me I won the contest and my paper was sent to the Katy ISD Administration Building. So I went home, told my parents, and we went to see it displayed on the wall.

I don’t know about you, but I laughed for several minutes after reading this… especially the paragraph about the hawk. For all those people who have had me revise their essays in the past, this is your chance to have your revenge. You could write a whole follow-up essay containing the grammatical mistakes, content repetition, etc. found in this essay. How the years fly by!