#Goals
I may have mentioned before that I have a useless degree. That isn't entirely true. My degree could get me into a master's program, but there are only nine schools in North America that offer the program I want to be in, and only one of those is in NC. If I were accepted to a school in another state, we'd have to pick up our whole lives and move. That, or I'd have to pick up half my life and leave Hurb and the furbabies at home for two years.
Yeah, right.
A pathologist's assistant is kind of like a physician's assistant, the main distinguisher being that a PathA's expertise lies in the gross (entire) examination of surgical specimens and performance of autopsies, and a PhysA works with living patients. It isn't an easy field to get into, especially if you've been out of school for a few years.
Nevertheless, that's what I want. Some people want to be cake decorators or nurses, I want to do autopsies. I've DONE autopsies before, and have assisted on over a hundred. Blood and guts (mostly guts) are my passion, and I'm not apologizing for that.
Unfortunately, Hurb and I cannot afford for me to return to school just yet. We both have school loans, as well as the mortgage to pay. We'd like to start our family (at lest two children) before our thirties, because who wants to be 60 when their kids are graduating from high school? That means we have five years. Five years for me to be accepted and complete a PathA program somewhere, and have one kid with maybe another on the way.
There isn't a good way for me to work it out, which is kind of depressing. Well, a lot depressing.
I say all of this because our education system is very flawed. Besides the obvious flaws like teacher salaries, class sizes, funding, and standards, of course. What I mean is that we expect teenagers to be able to make huge life decisions before they even graduate from high school. They can't even vote until they're eighteen, but they're expected to choose which education track they want to be on-- whether they'll be attending a four-year or two-year college program, going to a trade school, or skipping higher education altogether. That isn't fair. What sixteen or seventeen year old really knows what they want to do in life? We can't even trust those kids to drink alcohol responsibly, but by golly they better decide if they need to go to college or not!
Unbelievable.
Why are we encouraged to have one solitary career goal? Why do I have to focus all of my skills on ONE job? There are lots of things I'm good at! I'm an excellent cook, a decent builder, and a pretty good singer. I love to teach and tutor, and enjoy working in museums. I flippin' rock at looking through microscopes and studying anatomy.
So WHY do I have to pick ONE thing to do the rest of my life?
Hurb and I had a really good discussion about our future tonight. He is so good at encouraging me without all the cotton candy and unicorns (although I love a good unicorn!). I'm grateful that we can be honest with each other about our goals, even if they seem silly.
Well, even if mine seem silly.
That being said, I may be pursuing one of the things on that list up there in the coming months. Right now I'm in the research phase, but it will be nice to turn an interest and a hobby into something more.
Yeah, right.
A pathologist's assistant is kind of like a physician's assistant, the main distinguisher being that a PathA's expertise lies in the gross (entire) examination of surgical specimens and performance of autopsies, and a PhysA works with living patients. It isn't an easy field to get into, especially if you've been out of school for a few years.
Nevertheless, that's what I want. Some people want to be cake decorators or nurses, I want to do autopsies. I've DONE autopsies before, and have assisted on over a hundred. Blood and guts (mostly guts) are my passion, and I'm not apologizing for that.
Unfortunately, Hurb and I cannot afford for me to return to school just yet. We both have school loans, as well as the mortgage to pay. We'd like to start our family (at lest two children) before our thirties, because who wants to be 60 when their kids are graduating from high school? That means we have five years. Five years for me to be accepted and complete a PathA program somewhere, and have one kid with maybe another on the way.
There isn't a good way for me to work it out, which is kind of depressing. Well, a lot depressing.
I say all of this because our education system is very flawed. Besides the obvious flaws like teacher salaries, class sizes, funding, and standards, of course. What I mean is that we expect teenagers to be able to make huge life decisions before they even graduate from high school. They can't even vote until they're eighteen, but they're expected to choose which education track they want to be on-- whether they'll be attending a four-year or two-year college program, going to a trade school, or skipping higher education altogether. That isn't fair. What sixteen or seventeen year old really knows what they want to do in life? We can't even trust those kids to drink alcohol responsibly, but by golly they better decide if they need to go to college or not!
Unbelievable.
Why are we encouraged to have one solitary career goal? Why do I have to focus all of my skills on ONE job? There are lots of things I'm good at! I'm an excellent cook, a decent builder, and a pretty good singer. I love to teach and tutor, and enjoy working in museums. I flippin' rock at looking through microscopes and studying anatomy.
So WHY do I have to pick ONE thing to do the rest of my life?
Well, even if mine seem silly.
That being said, I may be pursuing one of the things on that list up there in the coming months. Right now I'm in the research phase, but it will be nice to turn an interest and a hobby into something more.
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