Ever since preschool, we’ve been asked what we wanted to be when we grow up. When you’re little, it’s easy to say, “I want to be a firefighter!”, and when you’re a little older say, “I want to be a chef like my dad!”. I always wanted to be a doctor, right up until high school. I wanted to be part of ROTC so I could get my education for free, and after completing the program, I wanted to be an OB/GYN and help women with their health, taking their concerns seriously. Now, I’m a marketing major. How exactly did I get here?
Well, in my freshman year of high school, I ended up in the ER. It’s not a big deal, but they drew blood, and it almost made me pass out. It shouldn’t have impacted me as much as it did, but it gave me a phobia of needles that I’m still working on. To be a doctor, it’s at least recommended that you can see a needle without feeling woozy, so I had to rethink that career path.
I grew up watching shows like NCIS and Bones (probably not the most appropriate for an eight-year-old), and I always loved the forensics. I figured, hey, Bones doesn’t have to deal with needles, I could go into forensic anthropology. I started learning all the bone names, and I was really excited! Sure, it’s a very difficult career path, hard to find a job, and weird hours, but it’d be so cool! Well, the pandemic hit the year I was in chemistry, and unfortunately that’s really important in forensics, and I’m naturally terrible at chemistry.
But that’s not where I gave up. This is where I have to think, hey, maybe there is a higher power or something because I went from being perfectly healthy to now having epilepsy. Stress and exhaustion induced, which I decided is not a great combination with what’s required of forensics. Waking up in the middle of the night to go check out a dead body? Not enough Keppra in the world for that.
The whole epilepsy thing made me go through quite a few tests, one of which was an echocardiogram, or a heart ultrasound. It was the end of junior year at this point, and I needed something to apply to college with, and I had no clue what I wanted to do anymore, almost everything went wrong with my life that year. But, seeing my heartbeat was pretty cool, especially because we were on the heart unit in anatomy. So, I went to school for ultrasounds, the steppingstone to echocardiography. I actually graduated from the program and am studying for my licensing exams currently, so that’s neat.
One of the best parts of performing ultrasounds is that it’s very likely that you’ll get carpal tunnel. One of my classmates developed it during the program and based off the pain I was getting at the end of the program; I was well on my way. I knew I’d be pursuing higher education at some point in my life, and when I couldn’t get a job right after graduation, I decided to go to St. Bonaventure for marketing. I know it sounds like a weird plan to jump to marketing after wanting to be in healthcare, but healthcare is a business, and so is higher education. My end goal is to work as an instructor at a college, and my teachers recommended some sort of business degree. I’ve always loved St. Bonaventure, so I’m here now.
The whole process of picking what you want to do is terrifying. I had been so sure for so many years, and all of it flipped on its head. I’m happy where I am now, even if there’s a lot of “what-if’s” in my head. I trusted the process, and now I’m at a school where I’m making connections and friends, working towards a career that will open up so many possibilities, and it’s something that I never would have considered back in high school. Don’t be afraid to switch it up if you don’t love what you’re doing, there’s plenty of time to find your niche.