Angelica Gonzales Hispanic Center of Excellence Summer 2002 Graduation Night           Last year, after the graduation ceremony, a friend pulled me aside from the crowd of excited ex-students of Bay City High to give me a small present.  While opening the gift, I asked what it was for.  He looked toward our class and said nothing.  When I lifted the lid, I saw a small sculpture but could not make out the figure.  As I lifted the sculpture out of its box, he said, "I saw this and thought of you," and walked away.  The sculpture was an owl dressed as a doctor, holding her medical bag in one hand and giving a lollipop to her small rabbit patient with the other.  At that moment, post graduation emotion overcame me. I placed the figurine back into its box for fear of dropping it.           Reflecting on the past, I think of the first time I wore scrubs.  It was during my junior year of high school in a class that would let me enter the hospital world.  The class was called Health Science Technology and was affiliated with Health Occupations of Students of America (HOSA), an organization that provides knowledge and opportunity for students who want to work in the health field.  With the help of the class and HOSA, I did rotations in a hospital, a chiropractor's office, a physical therapist's clinic, and a dentist's office.  During that year, I was given the opportunity to watch a total knee replacement.  The operation lasted for hours, but to me it felt like minutes.  I walked out of the operating room dazed- -yet amazed by how the human body works.  The information I attained that day, as well as the many days in other offices, has made me more committed to becoming a doctor than ever before.           I do know that becoming a doctor is not easy, but I have every intension of reaching this goal.  To be a good doctor, it is necessary to possess good characteristics: academic capacity, a positive attitude, as well as the determination to become a better student.  I believe I possess those qualities.           Thinking back to graduation night, I believe I know why my friend gave me that gift when he did.  He knew graduation night was an end, and a beginning, and wanted to give me a gift to mark that special moment.  The figurine symbolizes who I want to be.  And he wanted me to know he believed in me.