Chapter Fifty-Four: Major Changes (Pun Intended)
This is a bit of a follow up of my previous blog post. Like I said before...I am switching my major to Multidisciplinary Studies.
I'm writing this blog post so you can kind of understand what has been going through my head these last couple of weeks. One, to get this off my chest, and two, because I have a lot of underclassmen friends that might be in a similar boat soon.
In my life, I've wanted to be many things: Veterinarian, Journalist, Biologist, Pharmacist... The one thing I did not want to be was a teacher. Never, ever. Kids can be lazy and mean, and so can their parents. And don't get me started on administration. I just thought that career just wouldn't make me happy. And so I pushed all possibilities of looking into education under the rug, and never looked back.
So, I came to Texas Tech as a Pre-Pharmacy major. I have been stuck on Pharmacy for the last two years (a little bit of Optometry sneaked in during this past summer). I have been preparing myself (and my listening parents) that I was going to go to school for a long, long time, get a job, and make lots of money. What a great deal!
Well, this fall, I took a Healthcare Seminar with the Honors College. This Seminar had different healthcare professionals (nurses, pharmacists, clinical lab scientists, etc) give us some inside information about their lives. These careers all interested me, but there was thing I couldn't get over.
People.
I couldn't get over how, with these careers, someone's life is in the palm of my hand. Whether I am the doctor holding the scalpel or the pharmacist prescribing a drug, I hold the strings...
That's a lot of control...or lack of control, depending on who you are. Recently, we had someone talk to us about one of her "failures," a girl who is severely underdeveloped and no one can figure out how to fix it. She told us that doctors, and many other healthcare professionals, have an unhealthy amount of guilt over their "failures" and "mistakes". It's one thing to fail a test, but to fail a person...I don't think my heart could take it.
I'm not trying to put healthcare professionals down at all. If anything, my respect for them has only grown.
But with this realization, I was lost. I've been stuck on healthcare for so long, and now I didn't even know if I wanted to be a part of that world anymore. I considered CLS, Clinical Lab Science, which is where scientists diagnose human specimens for diseases, bacteria, etc. Not as high paying as Pharmacy (or Optometry), but it was less school. It sounded great because I didn't have to have the weight of someone's life on my shoulders. However, after researching more, I have realized that I don't want to work in a lab for the rest of my life.
So, I did what any other lost person would do: I took a quiz.
Okay, quizzes can only go so far. An answer usually will not drop out of the sky. So, the quiz told me that my personality is quite compatible with social work. Basically, this quiz told me something I had been ignoring for a long time: I like people.
I enjoy people's company. I enjoy listening to people. I love seeing people smile and laugh. I empathize with people's fears and sadness.
For the longest time, I saw this as a weakness. I saw it was weak to see people as people. I saw it as weird to laugh with someone I didn't even know. I saw it as weak when I couldn't hold back my own tears when someone else shed theirs. Now, I see, that this is my greatest strength. And I want to use that.
For the past two years, I taught RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation) at my church for 13-17 year olds. I couldn't ignore the fact that deep down, despite my efforts to avoid education, that I enjoyed it.
I really think I did that for a reason. Not just because I wanted to, but because I was meant to. I truly believe God has a plan for me, and I want to do my very best to follow it!
I don't like our education system. I think it's much better compared to others, but it's still broken. Despite this, a little voice inside of me says, "If you don't like it, do something about it."
So, even though I said I don't like education, even though I said I would never do it, here I am...switching my major.
And I couldn't be happier.
Got a burning question? Drop it off in the blank text box in the right margin!
I'm writing this blog post so you can kind of understand what has been going through my head these last couple of weeks. One, to get this off my chest, and two, because I have a lot of underclassmen friends that might be in a similar boat soon.
In my life, I've wanted to be many things: Veterinarian, Journalist, Biologist, Pharmacist... The one thing I did not want to be was a teacher. Never, ever. Kids can be lazy and mean, and so can their parents. And don't get me started on administration. I just thought that career just wouldn't make me happy. And so I pushed all possibilities of looking into education under the rug, and never looked back.
So, I came to Texas Tech as a Pre-Pharmacy major. I have been stuck on Pharmacy for the last two years (a little bit of Optometry sneaked in during this past summer). I have been preparing myself (and my listening parents) that I was going to go to school for a long, long time, get a job, and make lots of money. What a great deal!
Well, this fall, I took a Healthcare Seminar with the Honors College. This Seminar had different healthcare professionals (nurses, pharmacists, clinical lab scientists, etc) give us some inside information about their lives. These careers all interested me, but there was thing I couldn't get over.
People.
I couldn't get over how, with these careers, someone's life is in the palm of my hand. Whether I am the doctor holding the scalpel or the pharmacist prescribing a drug, I hold the strings...
That's a lot of control...or lack of control, depending on who you are. Recently, we had someone talk to us about one of her "failures," a girl who is severely underdeveloped and no one can figure out how to fix it. She told us that doctors, and many other healthcare professionals, have an unhealthy amount of guilt over their "failures" and "mistakes". It's one thing to fail a test, but to fail a person...I don't think my heart could take it.
I'm not trying to put healthcare professionals down at all. If anything, my respect for them has only grown.
But with this realization, I was lost. I've been stuck on healthcare for so long, and now I didn't even know if I wanted to be a part of that world anymore. I considered CLS, Clinical Lab Science, which is where scientists diagnose human specimens for diseases, bacteria, etc. Not as high paying as Pharmacy (or Optometry), but it was less school. It sounded great because I didn't have to have the weight of someone's life on my shoulders. However, after researching more, I have realized that I don't want to work in a lab for the rest of my life.
So, I did what any other lost person would do: I took a quiz.
Okay, quizzes can only go so far. An answer usually will not drop out of the sky. So, the quiz told me that my personality is quite compatible with social work. Basically, this quiz told me something I had been ignoring for a long time: I like people.
I enjoy people's company. I enjoy listening to people. I love seeing people smile and laugh. I empathize with people's fears and sadness.
For the longest time, I saw this as a weakness. I saw it was weak to see people as people. I saw it as weird to laugh with someone I didn't even know. I saw it as weak when I couldn't hold back my own tears when someone else shed theirs. Now, I see, that this is my greatest strength. And I want to use that.
For the past two years, I taught RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation) at my church for 13-17 year olds. I couldn't ignore the fact that deep down, despite my efforts to avoid education, that I enjoyed it.
I really think I did that for a reason. Not just because I wanted to, but because I was meant to. I truly believe God has a plan for me, and I want to do my very best to follow it!
I don't like our education system. I think it's much better compared to others, but it's still broken. Despite this, a little voice inside of me says, "If you don't like it, do something about it."
So, even though I said I don't like education, even though I said I would never do it, here I am...switching my major.
And I couldn't be happier.
Got a burning question? Drop it off in the blank text box in the right margin!
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