I’ve
given a lot of thought to what I want to do with my life ever since I was
little. I’ve had multiple ideas of what I’ve wanted to do, often switching from
one idea to the next or combining the ideas. I think at one point I wanted to
be a doctor, a lawyer, and a teacher all at once. Of course, combine that with
the dream that nearly every six-year-old girl has (being a mother to at least
one child), and that makes for a very daunting future filled with years of
selflessness, college loans, and craziness. Since age six, I’ve clearly thought
more clearly about what I want to do with the rest of my life (as in, I will not
have more than one completely time-consuming job [such as a doctor, a lawyer,
or a teacher] at a time while simultaneously trying to keep a sane and healthy
family).
I find
it ironic that the first thing I ever wanted to be was within the same major of
what I plan to pursue ten years later. When I was little, I wanted so badly to
be a doctor. I would go around the house with a dress-up purse that was big
enough to hold the play doctor’s equipment and give everyone “check-ups” with the
hard plastic tool to check reflexes and the tiny stethoscope that hurt my ears
whenever I tried to use them. When I told my aunt a few months ago that I was
pursuing a major in the medical field (pharmaceuticals or medical doctor; I
haven’t decided), she told me that she was far from surprised. In fact, she
said that when I was playing doctor as a child I would tell her that when I was
older and a real doctor, I would “heal her up good” or something. Thankfully,
my grammar has improved along with my realization that I cannot pull off three
full-time careers at once, or we may have had some issues with my sense of
reality.
Now it’s
my senior year. Applications for college and financial aid and scholarships
need to be written and I need to mentally prepare myself for the changes that
await me. I know for sure that I’m going to college as a science major with a
minor in creative writing (because even if you’re the world’s best brain
surgeon ever, you can still write a little on the side in any free time you
have, right?), but I have yet to decide a college to attend. Where you go
determines how easy your trek to success is. Obviously attending a community
college will be easier than attending an Ivy League school like Harvard or
Yale. I want to try to stay local, but as for choosing a definite place to
start my college education… Well, I’ll keep you posted.
So now,
if you aren’t completely bored with this already, I’m going to say exactly what
I want to do after college. I have a pretty good idea of what I want for
myself, but obviously just because I plan it one way doesn’t mean that life
will just go along blindly and allow me my fantasies. I know for sure that
creative writing will have a place in my future. The way I see it, I can have
nearly any job that I want and still have time enough to write short stories,
novels, poems, or even just a blog. Who knows, while I’m off in the medical
field, I could be simultaneously making it big in the literature world! Anyway,
as for my major, I’m still not completely, one hundred percent sure about
whether I want to be just your normal, run-of-the-mill medical doctor or if I’d
rather take my other option and become a pharmacist. Obviously I would need a
billion and a half years of schooling for each (hyperbole- I’m guessing between
eight and ten years for either option), but for each option I take there are
opportunities that I’m giving up. Pharmaceuticals would give me a chance to excel
in chemistry, which I’m already pretty good at, but would cost me the ability
to make a direct difference in the lives of the patients I treat. A medical
doctor would give me the opportunity to directly influence and help people, but
a part of me is afraid that I’d either be a major screw-up or I’d get too
grossed out by what comes through the doors. I’m not overly squeamish, but
sometimes I’m a little afraid to try to push myself to see if I really have the
stomach to be a doctor. I’m not a huge fan of just leaving things up to fate, but
maybe in this case, because my choice for my major is up in the air, I’ll just
have to wait it out and decide at a later date. Nobody said I had to decide my
entire future tomorrow, right?
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