After seeing my faculty advisor, talking to a few other students and a lot of soul searching, I think I've come up with a plan for the rest of my academic career. There was a monkey wrench thrown into the works a few weeks ago, so let me explain the predicament first.
The respiratory therapy program only accepts students every two years. The next time they will accept is in the spring, however, I will not have the correct/enough prerequisite classes in time to be accepted. The next cycle would not start until 2016. That would mean, I would have to take all of my prerequisites this fall and next spring, then wait two years for the next cycle. That isn't in my game plan. I really do want to work as an RT, but those reasons don't confine me to one career option. I want to work in a hospital setting, I don't want to be a nurse and I don't want to do something like medical coding or insurance. I want to work with patients and I want to make a difference in people's lives.
When Tommy was going through his hospital experiences, I knew what I wanted to do with my life, but after he died, I gave up on that dream because I couldn't see myself around patients. I couldn't bear the thought of setting foot into a hospital. After lots of therapy and just flat out suffering and working through the grief, I'm prepared to go for what I love.
Bearing in mind, I still need to talk to the guidance office, I have decided to change my major. I'm going to do the "two and two" program at my current school, then transfer to a 4 year university, probably WKU since they have a local campus that offers what I need. With the two and two, I can get my Associates in Applied Science, then move on to get my Bachelor's in Health Science with a minor in Social Services. With this, I can be a Patient Care Advocate and speak for those who can't. I only wanted to go for RT because, yes, I loved the idea of that kind of career, but also because I thought I could complete everything and be in a job within 3 years. That is not going to happen, so instead of giving up on one dream, I'm tailoring it to fit my life and maybe even go on to do bigger and better things with my life.
I want to make a difference. I want to be able to help a parent that might not know how to navigate the system. I had to get my bearings the hard way and it wasn't an easy feat. As a parent to a medically fragile child, I have experience with that side of the system. As a PCA, I will have the ability to open doors for people that I never knew existed. That fires me up as much as going for my RT, if not more.
On a side note, I got back my English paper... I got an "A".
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