Each spring, OAFP asks fourth-year Ohio medical students to submit their personal statements that were written for application to family medicine residency programs.

"I should use my career to serve where I am needed the most—to be a good steward of my time, talents and money. Instead of competing with my colleagues for their patients, I feel a calling to practice medicine where there is a shortage and need for doctors..." read more »

"I want to build a relationship with a family and care for them for many years allowing me to be compassionate, competent and provide complete healthcare. I realize that with the profession's duty of knowledge comes many challenges, but I will never turn away from the path to help others..." read more »

"I have come to realize that the responsibility behind the knowledge acquired in medical school is to conscientiously apply it to ease the suffering of those around us. The best way I can imagine continuing this tradition of kindness and service in my professional as well as personal life is through a career in family medicine..." read more »

"As I finish my third year of medical school and begin applications for internship, I am forced to redefine my answer to the ageless question, 'Why do you want to be a physician?' At age 8 I told my father, 'I want to be a doctor so I can help people.'..." read more »

"I remember well my experiences as a patient, and have tried to remember them while taking care of patients during the past few years. I realize the importance of nurses in the care of a patient, the sense of understanding that the human touch brings, the security brought by knowing the names of the medical staff and the need to explain every step of a procedure to decrease anxiety..." read more »

"If the most important thing in medicine is the patient, why do most personal statements start with 'I'? People are the reason for and driving force behind all of medicine. Each person is unique, which makes each encounter unique..." read more »

"Family medicine provides the opportunity to intervene and make life-altering changes. We are trained foremost to attend to the health concerns and disease status of patients, but as a family physician gets to know someone on a personal level, the physician can impact many different aspects of a person's life..." read more »

"The idea of entering medicine was solidified with the opportunity of traveling to Cameroon. There I was able to shadow a general practitioner at a clinic in the city of Kumba; his medical knowledge and ability to help various patients with so few resources amazed me. I was inspired and felt that medicine is what I wanted to pursue..." read more »

"My grandfather's death in 1984 due to complications from congestive heart failure planted the seeds that developed into my career in medicine. This formerly strong, broad-shouldered, stout Mexican immigrant, who once made a living bucking wild broncos, was bedridden in his last year – unable to move, much less breath..." read more »

"There exists a relationship between the family physician and their patient that is unlike any other. Where a person may not reveal certain things to their friends or family, those boundaries are often shed when a patient walks through the office door..." read more »

"To be a great family physician, one must understand the complicated language of medicine and weave it into a story that patients can comprehend. Conversely, family physicians must be capable of translating the patient's storytelling into a clarified concern or medical complaint..." read more »

"As a student in Mr. Huentelman's fourth-grade class, I was asked to dress a doll in an outfit appropriate for what I wanted to be when I grew up.' I thoughtfully dressed my Cabbage Patch Kids® doll in a white coat, with a black doctor's bag and made a nametag that said 'Dr. Laura'..." read more »

"Family medicine is a continued commitment to all patients grown and small, healthy and ill, poor and wealthy. It is also the dedication to train future physicians, to teach the art and science of medicine, the humility in patient and family care, and the true difference between the words, 'to cure' and 'to heal'..." read more »

"Perhaps most importantly, I want to become a family physician because I will get to be on the front lines of disease prevention and health promotion. I can think of no better position than one in family medicine that will give me such great opportunity to encourage people to take better care of themselves..." read more »