A lot of people getting their undergraduate degree have the same question: what am I going to do after this? What do I need to be prepared for? Do I have what it takes to be in ____ program?
This was how I started feeling coming up on the end of my second year of my undergrad degree. I’ve changed my major three times, talked to multiple advisors within different departments, gotten advice from attending school events, etc. I am currently a biochemistry major with a focus in neuroscience – I plan on going into the field of neurology in medical school.
I don’t think any of us know exactly what we want. It took me awhile to come to the conclusion that going to medical school is something to make a really big deal about. Whenever I discuss it with my friends and family – they always find it so fascinating that I took such an interest to the sciences. My parents went into the arts – my best friend is passionate about social justice – and I want to go to medical school.
There’s no distinct specific life event that caused me to one day wake up and decide I was going to medical school, I guess it’s more of a mixture of things. I think a lot of people try to decide on what their college major or life aspiration is based on some specific event – since we see a lot of that in the movies. The best advice I can offer based on what I’ve thought through, you want to feel like what you’re going to do for the rest of your life is naturally enjoyable. Many people work, and it feels like work, and they check the clock and count the hours until 5 so they can drive home and be done. They have their work life, and their home life. My thought was – what if I enjoyed doing my job so much I didn’t feel like checking the clock so I could run home, what if I wanted to see my patients and do operations and work with people I can relate to? Maybe, just maybe I’ll never feel like I’m working for my money at all.
Some may say I’m lucky my passion leads ultimately to being wealthy – but I never saw it that way. The way I feel about studying science and medicine is nothing compared to other subjects. The idea that I could truly love my work, that I can really enjoy my studies and not feel like I have to spend my entire day in misery – that’s why I study what I do. That’s what helped me decide my major, and pick out an (approximate but of course never certain) life path. I think your path chooses you sooner or later, it falls upon you and is placed in front of you and you realize it. I always knew in some part of me I was fascinated by math, science, and medicine, but it took me until college to realize what I indeed wanted to do with my degree and what my mapped out plan was. Of course, we’ll never really know what we truly enjoy until we experience it. I won’t know what its like to be a doctor until the day I walk into the hospital for my first shift for the first time. I guess that’s just the thrill of it. All I know is, I feel like most of us go through similar waves in college in terms of figuring out our future, no matter what your program or major or aspirations, we all ask ourselves if we have what it takes to do what we love. But if you love it – it shouldn’t really feel like too hard of work at all.
By: Nicola Hannigan