Minority Family or Not

Written by Karl in January of 2003 for medical school applications.

I have a confession to make. I was not born into a disadvantaged family. I’ve never been homeless, and I have never needed to worry about the clothes on my back. We have never been in poverty, and the kids in the family have never needed to go out to help support the family.

I was born to married, loving parents with a brother and three sisters. I wasn’t abused as a child or had to provide for myself on my own since the age of 10. I’ve been sent to the best schools by parents that value education above all else. We were raised with morals, values, and a conscience. We went to church every Sunday. We all had the chance to play sports. My dad was a part of Boy Scouts with us boys, and my mom was apart of Girl Scouts with the girls.

Our house was big and was always teeming with activity. Foreign exchange students, runaways, friends who were kicked out of home, and friends that just needed a place to stay for a while found our home to be a haven for them. We ate dinners together; it usually started with the 7 of us and ended up at about 15 with friends and neighbors stopping by. We always would move over, grab another plate for them, and keep on talking and eating. If food ran out we didn’t notice or care; the company was worth having.

I don’t feud with my siblings; we all get along wonderfully. We weren’t allowed to watch TV as children, so we spent our time outdoors. We worked on the house with my parents, the cars with my dad, and seemingly innumerable projects the family always had going. We learned to work with our hands, an ability seemingly fewer and fewer people can do these days. We weren’t spoiled, money wasn’t abundant especially with 5 kids in private schools, but my parents were thrifty. They taught us how to save and how to be grateful for what we had. My family isn’t a minority in terms of race or color, but we are definitely a minority in terms of morals and values. We have never qualified for many scholarships or special acceptances because we haven’t been in the minority. I didn’t realize it growing up, but my family is a minority; we just don’t get any special treatment for it.

AMCAS 2003.2