Personal Narrative

I examined the corpse. This empty shell, once filled with thoughts, awareness, feelings and the

whole abundance of elements that make up a life, now gone with the wind. I assumed the cause

of death to be disease. November is feast season for squirrels so it couldn’t have been starvation

and there was no sign of physical injury. Claus poked it with a stick and sighed with despair. He

wanted to bury it but I convinced him to leave it for the maggots; to let it return to whatever it

was before it was a squirrel. We strolled back to the Stump, a monstrous oak tree that had fallen

over a long time ago where we’d always meet after school, climb it, and decide on what way to

go. Usually we’d go explore a new part of the forest. One day, we found a pond with a little

inviting grass island right in the middle of it. We spent another day building a bridge of big

branches so we could cross the couple feet of water and reach that little piece of turf. On the

island Claus spotted a thriving colony of woodlice under a stone while I was more interested in a

dead hedgehog, partially submerged by the shore, slightly decomposed. I watched it sink

peacefully as I pushed it out further.

That’s how we spent most of our weekends; exploring the local forest. Now this forest

isn’t a very big one, maybe 5-600 acres, but with our 11 years of age and obsession with nature

and exploration documentaries, it felt huge and endlessly exciting. After many hundreds of

hours playing expeditioner, however, you evidently come to a limit as regards what can be

discovered in a forest. Eventually we knew the whole place by heart and should we find

something new, it was probably just another little creek or bush or another dead blackbird. It gets

old. Claus got bored of the forest and gained an interest for diving while my fascination toward

the dead squirrels and hedgehogs kept with me and evolved into a wholehearted allure for the
topic of life and death.

Life has no definition. We tend to think of something ‘alive’ as an organic being that can

do something to accomplish something. A squirrel collects acorns to survive the winter, trees

grow tall and perform photosynthesis, and we humans seem to do whatever we can in order to

acquire love, wealth and safety; all of which contribute to longer lives and reproduction. We all

instinctively want to stay alive and well and that’s why the one big cause of tragedy - death - is

such a fascinating and thought-provoking concept to me; why those dead forest animals had a

way to entice and fascinate me like nothing else. When does a person really die? Is it when the

heart stops? When the brain shuts off? Is it when the last ever electrical signal travels through the

nervous system? Death is hard to defy and harder to define. It is one of the most powerful things

to ever happen to us and the thing we all probably fear the most. It’s the most captivating concept

there is if you ask me and has led me to my passion for pathology, the study of diseases, cause of

death, and diagnostic medicine, which i hope to make a career in.

I’ve had an interest for medicine since i binge-watched Grey’s Anatomy in 7th grade and

my love for the field has been a part of me for as long as I can remember. I urge to learn all about

it and most of all do research in the field and explore it like i explored the forest with Claus all

those years ago. Pathology has a beautiful way of combining biological and medical science with

philosophy and a sense of purpose that I just can’t imagine finding anywhere else.