Today being the last day of lecture for me, I went ahead with pneumonia to school and sat in my medical humanities class. Being a premed major and wanting to get more info on medicine, I thought that this would be a great choice to further push me into the thought of becoming a physician. Never thinking that it would make me even more confused.
For today’s lecture we focused on careers. One of the university academic advisors came in to speak with us on careers that are in the medical field. Both dealing with direct patient care and not so direct patient care. She handed us a paper that had four boxes. The four boxes listed:
- Values
- Interests
- Personality Traits
- Skills/Strengths
She said take your time to fill in each box. Then at the end create a mission statement that you want to use for you life. Create your life’s mission statement. Staring at the paper, I couldn’t do it.
The advisor said that she would help with that in the next hour and a half. In an hour and a half she was going to help me. She even offered students to come see her and make an appointment which consist of 15-30 minutes to go over ourselves and figure out what career was right for us. In roughly two hours, I was going to have a rough idea on what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. You have got to be kidding me?!
For incoming freshman in a matter of months they had to go ask to use the bathroom now we are getting loans and having to decide what we want to do forever? But again, that’s life as they say.
Still wanting to keep an open mind, I listened and even jotted down some career options that I thought that I would be interested in instead of physician.
When she asked if anyone had any questions and no one budged these words came out of her mouth:
“Come on, you sure? You have everything figured out? You have a plan? This is a great time to ask questions. You are going to have to figure out who you want to work for really soon.”
What?
You have spent this entire lecture focusing on different careers, even non healthcare careers. Lecturing on certain skills we need to build for our boss. What if I want to be my own boss. Throughout the entire lecture she may have made us fill out a paper, but once we did, she discredited all of our values and focused on not what skills we did have, but what skills we need to have to work for someone else.
What if I want to be my own boss? What happened to having my own life dreams instead of living someone else’s?
When this happened, I had one thought in my head. Some of us aren’t even 21 and you expect us to know everything about ourselves? Being shocked when that answer was yes.
Well, if no one has told you this yet, I will tell you right now that it’s impossible. Want to know why? Because we are forever changing! Here is my light bulb moment. Instead of running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to figure out what OTHERS want you to be, how about you be yourself.
Find your likes and dislikes. Figure out your skills and work hard on them. Go out and explore, take elective courses. Most importantly, document.
Document Document Document. In better terms for me, that would be blogging. Blogging isn’t just a platform where you just have fun. It’s where you make memories and have content to look back on when you are older and have figured some things out. For the past year and a half, blogging has taught me so much about myself that I never would have dreamed of. I never thought in a million years that actually blogging and saying how I feel would bring all these dreams and emotions out of me that I aspire to be.
If you’re not into blogging, have a personal journal, make home videos. You never know how documenting your life will help you create your dream life.
All the Love and Blessings,
Andrea Othela
