Morkowski 1

Anika Morkowski
Ms. Winter
British Literature, Period 2
31 August 2015
Personal Statement
Freezing, wet, and tired, I was left standing next to my four year old friend who was
almost blown away because of the force of the wind on her umbrella. Up ahead Kelly and her
daughter almost get taken out by a falling branch, while at the same time a tree falls over across
the street. You just keep walking and try to listen to what your father is saying, even though you
cannot hear anything even if someone screams right into your ear. The wind and rain are just too
harsh. Around the bend in the road the river is so flooded the bridge is covered with over a foot
of water and all I wish for is the shuttle bus to drive by and pick us up.
Most peoples first experience in Yosemite would include hiking to Lower Yosemite
Falls or crossing Sentinal Bridge to glance at the iconic view of Half Dome, but not my
family.We attempted to go Geocaching in a huge storm with kids aging between four and seven.
For as long as I can remember, my family has always been the ones to go on crazy adventurous
road trips and vacations, but these adventures have lead me to gain an interest and respect for
other cultures and places.
I have always taken my family and these trips for granted and assumed they were normal.
As I have grown up I have realised how unique these opportunities have been and how lucky I
am to have had the opportunity to gain many experiences and learn many new things. I now
know more about our earth and environment as well as gained an appreciation of many different
ancient cultures and ways of living. I have witnessed 700 year old homes of the Ancestral

Morkowski 2
Pueblo people. Seeing their houses and entire community carved into the sides of a canyon made
me realise how incredible their culture was, and how amazing it was that they could create a
whole life and society in the side of a cliff. Observing the ruins of these beautifully carved
structures made me wonder how these people lived and want they thought and believed. Their
whole world was the Mesa Verde canyons and surrounding area, so their culture was probably
unique to the area they lived in and knew. My father was always the one to question and talk to
me about the way different people lived. My father and I would come up with ideas about what
the Ancestral Pueblo people believed or the reasons the immaculate pueblos of Chaco Canyon
were abandoned. These conversations of ancient cultures broadened my knowledge and
increased my curiosity of all cultures, making me want learn know about the world around me
and the hundreds of different ways of life that happen all around me everyday.
My father influenced me a lot as a person. Along with encouraging my interest in worldly
cultures, he sparked my interest in viruses and diseases and helping others. He was the one who
introduced me to the books The Hot Zone by Richard Preston and Ebola by William T.
Close, which both showed the dangers and devastation caused by viruses and sparked my interest
in helping others fight against infectious disease. This led me to my dream job,field
epidemiology. With this job I would be able travel and explore different cultures first hand,
while also helping people fight ancient viruses and diseases that plagued these societies. This job
would allow me to interview and meet people from all over the world and learn what they
believe and think. Being a field epidemiologist would allow me to keep learning and expanding
as a person, while also helping people learn and protect themselves from infectious diseases . It
is all I could want in a job.