Thursday's Trip Down Memory Lane

I'm having a uneventful night at work, and BJ sent me an email asking if I was going to compose a memory lane post. Given that all of my patients are happily sleeping (for the moment) and my charting is already caught up (major shocker) - I figured why not?? The problem is searching for a topic .... hmmm, what to talk about??

Well I guess we can talk about careers and jobs. Thinking back, I honestly don't think as a kid I ever had the whole, "When I grow up I wanna be a ____ ." I was always one of the smartest in my class, always on the honor roll, but I grew up in a very rural area and I think it was hard to see what the big wide world offered. Most of the families around us were farmers or coal miners, a few maybe drove to Springfield and worked in some capacity for the state government, but it wasn't like we had career day at my school. I always knew I wanted to go away to college, preferably far away. I remember wanting to go to UCLA when I was in grade school which was funny because I had never been farther west than Missouri at the time. Los Angeles seemed so exotic and exciting! I hadn't thought about what I would study, just going there.

Even in high school, I didn't have a clear vision of what I wanted to do with my life. I was lucky enough to move to a more urban area and attend an excellent, private high school that emphasized college preparation. I had a lot of opportunities to take things like Chemistry, Physics, Anatomy & Physiology, Calculus and the like - I seemed to gravitate towards the science world, but I still didn't know what I was going to do with it. Unlike my grade school days, most of my peers in high school had parents who were doctors, lawyers, accountants, teachers, nurses etc. and most of my friends also seemed to have a clear vision on what they wanted to do. I still just kindof plugged away, got good grades, ended up with extremely competitive ACT scores that would have allowed me to go anywhere to college. I had little colleges from all over the US contacting me and offering me scholarships, but what do you do with this when you have no clue what you want to be???

I did make it through college, plodded through lots of majors .... Pharmacy, Medical Lab Technology, Middle School Ed (science & math emphasis), Chemistry, Biology ... contemplated even more majors, thought about being a doctor, lawyer, chemist, teacher, joining the Peace Corps. In the end I still didn't have a flipping clue, but as a second semester junior I was still undecided. I ended up in an environmental health major because it seemed interesting at the time and I knew I had to pick something and just get my damn degree.

Of course I obviously didn't have it totally figured out because after 7 years working in public health I went to nursing school, but at least it's in the same ballpark.

Though it's sometimes been frustrating as I've searched for my path (which is still ongoing), I guess if I look back, I've never really known what I want to be when I grow up. I just know I want to be happy, to enjoy the work that I do, and to feel that my work makes a difference in the lives of others.

If my kid ends up being clueless too, I'll just encourage them to go to a good college, take lots of different classes, and have confidence that they will eventually find their way.

So what did you want to be when you were a kid??