Since I graduated from pharmacy school last May, people have been asking me where I decided to finally start my career now that I was done. Since I chose a path in pharmacy that isn't exactly the common public image of a pharmacist, I typically get puzzled looks and questions after answering, even by those in other related health care fields. So much so, that now when people ask I began to simply put them off by saying it's too complicated to explain. Last week after starting my new job and being inundated with questions, I realized that it is in my, and my colleagues, best interest to educate those who care about what I do. After all, I chose to spend my day teaching students how to educate the public on a new image of the pharmacist in your community. I began to think about the best way to communicate this to the people who love me and with much thought and consideration and being frustrated by not being able to define what it is I have done with my career, I came to the conclusion that blogging daily would be the optimal way to let the people who care enough to know what it is exactly I do everyday.
I suppose I should start with the beginning. I started my higher education at Virginia Tech in the fall of 2002 with every intention to go to pharmacy school once I became an alum-Hokie with a degree in Biology. I know, I know...I'm one of those. I have known since I was 14 that I would pursue pharmacy as a career and really have no idea why other than my father mentioned it to me once in a conversation in the "big blue van". You see, I started as every wide-eyed, scientifically-inclined, small town child does. I wanted to be a doctor! Not just any doctor, an orthopaedic surgeon to be exact. Again, no clue why other than I thought I'd get to work on athletes and their knees all day, not really understanding all that medical school and surgical residencies implied. Thus, my career path was set after a brief comment from my father that went something like "ya know, you ought to think about pharmacy" to which I replied "alright". Groundbreaking and heartwarming, I know.
BUT....and this is a big BUT...most people don't realize that it was a struggle, putting it mildly, to the end. One that I still can't believe I overcame. You see, as I began my freshman year at VT, I realized I wasn't quite the stellar student I always thought I was :). General chemistry and it's accompanying lab, as well as my super-fantastic calculus course that was taught on the computer in an emporium of 100s of other students, were NOT my forte. By my second semester of college, I was convinced that Communications was my destiny.
That summer, after much urging from my Great Aunt Nancy, was spent working at her company four 10hr days a week, at minimal pay, with my best friend in the world all while feeling as though I worked on an assembly line. Fall of my sophomore year brought my first apartment and all the amazing experiences it brings to a 19 year old. The semester was filled with wonderful nights with my three roommates, doing my best to not be homesick for my high school sweetheart, and despising Organic chemistry with fervor. Again, convinced communications was my future, I somehow trudged on! There were many Thursday nights forfeited with my friends because of 8AM classes and multiple breakdowns in tears secondary to just not understanding why I couldn't tell you what an S-enantiomer was. At this point, you must be asking "so why didn't you switch?" Oddly enough, I think can say that it was probably because I was either too lazy or too intimidated to to find the right building or fill out the form.
Another summer came filled with 40hr work weeks, my best friend switching her major to education, dreading the physics courses ahead in my Biology coursework, and desperately wanting the distance between be and my "beau" to be gone. All of the above made me apply and actually schedule classes and living arrangements at East Tennessee State. Nursing was my calling and being a nurse anesthetist was it!!! The weird thing was I never called to tell Tech that I was withdrawing and transferring. It came down to the week I was leaving before I decided I would inevitably be moving back to Blacksburg. At this point, I realized there was no use in fighting it, pharmacy was going to be it. I gave in and gave up! I'd invested too much time, stress, and money into something to start over now. I would complete my degree and if I hated it, I would go back for something else.
I returned to Tech for my junior year with no real place to live and no clue what I was going to do. My roommates had previous plans and I was homeless. I scheduled courses Tues-Thurs and commuted back and forth to Abingdon each week. I was lucky to have found wonderful people to share those few nights with when I was actually in the "burg" and spent only one weekend there the entire year. That was, interestingly enough, the weekend I interviewed for pharmacy school at in Richmond.
In Aug, I decided I would use the current, not so hot PCAT scores and GPA I had and attempt to gain admission to the VCU School of Pharmacy in Richmond, VA. I decided that this round would be practice and if i didn't get in I'd just pursue it again more seriously the following year. I wasn't ready to leave my friends anyway! I remember thinking and was partially convinced that if I could just get an interview, I'd woo them into thinking I was a decent enough student to be admitted :). Thinking there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that I'd be considered, I was called to interview in November and the letter of acceptance arrived around 3 weeks later as I arrived home for the Christmas holidays.
I began pharmacy school with the rest of Class of P2009 at VCU in the fall of 2005 and the rest, as they say, is history. I like to think it was fate/destiny, whatever you call it. Now that I'm on the other side of the saga, I can say that God is 100% responsible for where I am today. There were too many hurdles for me to get here on my own and I'm, quite honestly, not that strong to endure it. Since this blog is very long, tedious, and I'm sure boring to those of you who know this story or don't care, I will continue at a later date. I am hoping that by giving those of you who are a reading a background of my choice, you will understand how I've come to be in this position.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding" Proverbs 3:5
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