Ramón B. Colón Rivera is writing a personal statement for a class discussing his desire to pursue a Ph.D. or M.D. despite life's difficulties. He has a strong drive to learn, constantly questioning and seeking new understandings. His curiosity leads him to interact closely with partners during experiments to learn more. Obstacles present opportunities to accomplish goals through extra work and learning. Staying determined by not giving up is important to achieve one's goals, as becoming one's best self is the greatest competition.

1. Ramón B. Colón Rivera February 24, 2015
#02 Dr. Elena González
Course: BIOL 3955 Research Seminar
Personal Statement
Life is not easy. Neither, if you want to pursued a Ph.D. or a M.D. The definition for my
life is never give up if you didn’t try. The desire to learn has taught me several things specifically
in the field of medicine.
I always want to learn and that is why I question myself so many times. The most typical
questions are why that exists or how it can be done. If I am doing an experiment in a group I
interact with my partners faster. My problem is that I am not satisfied when someone gives me
an answer to my question; I always want to know new things. Every time I search different
meanings for one thing, like results of an experiment.
As E. Joseph Cossman said, "Obstacles are those things that people see when they cease
to look at his goals.”In the life we need to work hard to accomplish our goals. Obstacles are the
opportunities to learn new things but doing a little bit of more work. In the way to our goals we
are going to fall but the person that gets up and keep going are less. That is why I have in mind
“never give up”. As Jim Taylor said, "Your biggest competitor is what you want to become. "