I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-Robert Frost
This is the season
when I should be busy in submitting application forms for med schools. This must be
the time when I should envision myself as someone who is wearing a white coat
and carrying a stethoscope. I should be
excited in studying parasites and tissues as it gives a glimpse of what I will
be studying in the future.
But that's not the
case for me. I never thought that the childhood dream slowly became blurry and
later out of my sight. To make words simpler, right now, I cannot see myself as
a physician in the future.
"I want to be a
doctor someday." Those were the words that I had said since I was a child.
I used to tell my classmates that I want to become a doctor. My family, since
the earliest moment in my life that I can remember, have encouraged me to become
one. I was too young to think of what path I want to take then, but I at that
time I simply wanted to heal the sick.
Years have passed,
and during my first twelve years in school, whenever I was asked of my
ambition, I would always tell them that I want to be a doctor. All of them would
believe on me, and all of them would hope that I will be someday. And then it
changed.
I am taking Biology
in college (and will graduate on April 2013). It is indeed a course for those
who want to go into the medical field. As a pre-med course, this degree program
really showed me what life is. I was able to see the things beyond what I see
in animals and plants and nature, but I failed to appreciate its medical
applications.
Calling? Certainly,
there is, but I heard a different call. Different from what I aspired years
ago.
After my undergrad,
I am planning to take a master's degree and pursue teaching or research
(Teaching is much closer to my heart, btw). These are the career options that
any Bio major would less likely to choose. I don't know what will happen in the
next chapters in my life; I do not have a foresight of what will happen in the
future. I changed my mind not because I lose hope; I only want to take a
different path right now. I want to do something that I would really love,
something that I would passionately do even if the salaries are low.
To those who
believed and hoped with me, I pray that I did not fail your expectations of me.
I hope that whatever would become of me in a few years time, you will still be
happy for me, and will celebrate with me.
