Journal #1
Dreams For the Future
Since I was little I knew I wanted to be a doctor. I could always picture myself in the
coat so white it was blinding working in a hospital making life saving surgeries. Until
recently I had no idea what kind of doctor I wanted to be. In 7th grade we did a life science
career project in that project we chose a career that had to do with life sciences I chose to do
Oncology. Oncology is important to me because cancer plays a huge part in my family
almost all of my family has had cancer at one point in their lives. I want to become an
oncologist so I can understand and help treat cancer. Treating and helping people with cancer
is important to me because I want to help, and I understand how hard it is to live when
someone in your family has cancer. To be able to be an oncologist would be a dream for me.
I would love to work and help people with cancer and getting them healthy again. Pancreatic
cancer recently took my Grandpa from me. It was harder than you could imagine knowing
that someone you love is terminally ill, and you know you can do nothing. It feels like
someone has their hand around your heart and is slowly tearing it out. I never want to feel
that helpless again in the face of cancer. That is why I will be an oncologist when I get older
so I can learn how to better treat cancer and study why as a society there is so much cancer.
An important thing to know about my Grandpa is he never gave up he fought until the end.
Pancreatic cancer is a terrible thing to diagnose. Symptoms only occur once it has
metastasized and once it has metastasized it is usually incurable. This reminds me of a quote
from Kung fu Panda that I find fits and is really important to remember when you face
challenges in you life. "Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift, and
that is why it's called the present".
Even more recently my Bubbie (Grandma) was diagnosed with blood cancer. She is the
greatest Grandma. She survived World War 2 as a refugee from Poland and lived in a
concentration camp in Africa. She now lives in Toronto, Canada and has two sons one of
which is my dad.
I am telling you the reader all this so you can understand why I want to be an
oncologist and how much it means to me. I think of cancer as termites infesting wood you
don’t know they are there until you step and fall through, they are constantly eating away and
undermining the structure. I want to be the exterminator removing the infestation and helping
to prevent more in the future.
Since I was little I knew I wanted to be a doctor. I could always picture myself in the
coat so white it was blinding working in a hospital making life saving surgeries. Until
recently I had no idea what kind of doctor I wanted to be. In 7th grade we did a life science
career project in that project we chose a career that had to do with life sciences I chose to do
Oncology. Oncology is important to me because cancer plays a huge part in my family
almost all of my family has had cancer at one point in their lives. I want to become an
oncologist so I can understand and help treat cancer. Treating and helping people with cancer
is important to me because I want to help, and I understand how hard it is to live when
someone in your family has cancer. To be able to be an oncologist would be a dream for me.
I would love to work and help people with cancer and getting them healthy again. Pancreatic
cancer recently took my Grandpa from me. It was harder than you could imagine knowing
that someone you love is terminally ill, and you know you can do nothing. It feels like
someone has their hand around your heart and is slowly tearing it out. I never want to feel
that helpless again in the face of cancer. That is why I will be an oncologist when I get older
so I can learn how to better treat cancer and study why as a society there is so much cancer.
An important thing to know about my Grandpa is he never gave up he fought until the end.
Pancreatic cancer is a terrible thing to diagnose. Symptoms only occur once it has
metastasized and once it has metastasized it is usually incurable. This reminds me of a quote
from Kung fu Panda that I find fits and is really important to remember when you face
challenges in you life. "Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift, and
that is why it's called the present".
Even more recently my Bubbie (Grandma) was diagnosed with blood cancer. She is the
greatest Grandma. She survived World War 2 as a refugee from Poland and lived in a
concentration camp in Africa. She now lives in Toronto, Canada and has two sons one of
which is my dad.
I am telling you the reader all this so you can understand why I want to be an
oncologist and how much it means to me. I think of cancer as termites infesting wood you
don’t know they are there until you step and fall through, they are constantly eating away and
undermining the structure. I want to be the exterminator removing the infestation and helping
to prevent more in the future.
Journal #2
Meaning Behind the Name
Nicholas Anastasakis, a unique name, a name that comes from Greek roots. Nicholas is
a relatively common name that has ties to many cultures. The name Nicholas originally
comes from Greece. It can be broken down into to parts Nike and Laos. Nike means victory
(interesting fact my families initials spell NIKE) and Laos means of the people so Nicholas
means victory of the people. The name became popular through Saint Nicholas or Santa
Claus who is the patron Saint of children, merchants, and sailors. Nicholas has been the name
of many important people throughout history including five popes and two tzars.
Anastasakis on the other hand is so unique that it can take most people a couple days to
learn how to pronounce it. When ever I say Anastasakis in my head I hear my Grandpas gruff
voice and thick accent saying it and I can smell what his apartment smells like and see the
views from his window and I hear him tell me as I sit on his lap (doesn’t matter how old you
are thats were he wants you) “You have a good name. Very strong”. “Let me tell you about
Sykia and your papu” Sykia is a small village in greece where my Grandpa grew up. You get
used to seeing blank looks when you say your name. I used to try and speed through it as if
that made it shorter. I would hate when people asked me to repeat my name and I would be
embarrassed thinking that is was the only one in the whole class with a name that sounds like
some extinct dinosaur or a parasite. Anastasakis is such a unique name that when you type it
into google and search for a definition nothing comes up except for papers tracing it back a
couple hundred years but otherwise ancestry.com and google do not know what Anastasakis
means. The closest definition I can get comes from the family. In the family it is generally
agreed to mean the re-birth or the resurrection.
When I asked my mother how they picked my name I was promptly shown a list of
about twenty five name Alexander to Stefano. If my parents had followed the tradition of
naming the first born son after the fathers father my name would be a variation of Paul like
my cousins name which is Pavel. If you take a look at the list you will notice that there is not
a single name which starts with P. MY parents then narrowed it down to Nicholas,
Alexander, Stefano, and Marcus they then decided on Nicholas.
Nicholas Anastasakis, a unique name, a name that comes from Greek roots. Nicholas is
a relatively common name that has ties to many cultures. The name Nicholas originally
comes from Greece. It can be broken down into to parts Nike and Laos. Nike means victory
(interesting fact my families initials spell NIKE) and Laos means of the people so Nicholas
means victory of the people. The name became popular through Saint Nicholas or Santa
Claus who is the patron Saint of children, merchants, and sailors. Nicholas has been the name
of many important people throughout history including five popes and two tzars.
Anastasakis on the other hand is so unique that it can take most people a couple days to
learn how to pronounce it. When ever I say Anastasakis in my head I hear my Grandpas gruff
voice and thick accent saying it and I can smell what his apartment smells like and see the
views from his window and I hear him tell me as I sit on his lap (doesn’t matter how old you
are thats were he wants you) “You have a good name. Very strong”. “Let me tell you about
Sykia and your papu” Sykia is a small village in greece where my Grandpa grew up. You get
used to seeing blank looks when you say your name. I used to try and speed through it as if
that made it shorter. I would hate when people asked me to repeat my name and I would be
embarrassed thinking that is was the only one in the whole class with a name that sounds like
some extinct dinosaur or a parasite. Anastasakis is such a unique name that when you type it
into google and search for a definition nothing comes up except for papers tracing it back a
couple hundred years but otherwise ancestry.com and google do not know what Anastasakis
means. The closest definition I can get comes from the family. In the family it is generally
agreed to mean the re-birth or the resurrection.
When I asked my mother how they picked my name I was promptly shown a list of
about twenty five name Alexander to Stefano. If my parents had followed the tradition of
naming the first born son after the fathers father my name would be a variation of Paul like
my cousins name which is Pavel. If you take a look at the list you will notice that there is not
a single name which starts with P. MY parents then narrowed it down to Nicholas,
Alexander, Stefano, and Marcus they then decided on Nicholas.