Hi,
I’ve written a few drafts of my PS, and I really like how it’s coming along. I think I could be only a couple of drafts away from being done. However, a doctor that’s sort of started to mentor me this year has been really pushing me to say more, say more, say more about the career I did after leaving pre-med. I got a masters in speech-language pathology and then got a job in a less than ideal environment, went into a very bad place in my life, and did not finish out the year. I did not feel passionate enough to find a more suitable position and finish qualifying for my full licensure; I even told the company I had worked with not to submit the work we had done which would have taken me a large part of the way toward licensure. I fully left the field and became a test-prep instructor for the next few years. At this point, I’ve healed enough from the bad experience I had as an SLP to be able to talk about that period verbally, but I guess I now look at that part or my life like a decent boyfriend who I had a bad breakup with. I appreciate and continue to use various things I got from it, but I don’t hold it as special, and I don’t believe it’s the most effective or wise use of my space to try and make someone else think it’s special when I don’t.
Through the few drafts I’ve done trying to follow this doctor’s advice to include more SLP, I haven’t really gotten traction between it and trying to explain why I want to be a doctor, but I’ve moreso gone to a negative place of “this is what was wrong with that” and edging on the idea that it was a mistake (which I don’t think it was, but I have admittedly had that feeling at times).
I’ve done many other things in my life that I feel much more passionate about, have done more recently, have left on better terms, and/or performed better in. The only thing is that they are not allied health careers, but my thoughts are so what, as long I can pull out something that I can connect to my drive. So, I removed every mention of SLP from my latest draft, which I don’t think she has read yet because when she called to reschedule today’s meeting, she advised that I also gut my last 2 paragraphs and base them on my SLP background and what skills it has given me to show why I would be a good physician.
Basically, my question is whether or not I’m just being obstinate. Is she right that I should include SLP as a major junction (at least having its own paragraph) in my PS, or am I right that it just won’t be personal enough for me?
When this relationship formed, I was initially hoping she would become a recommendation writer for me. I’ve almost entirely let go of that idea, but I would still like to keep her as a mentor because networks are important. If I do continue in the opposite direction of what she’s been advising, does anyone have any tips on how to address that with her in order to give the relationship its best chances at survival?