Taking Time to Find My Way

At the end of my senior year I had no idea where I was going with my life. I had come to Cornell as a pre-med, but earned more credits in music than in biology and mainly marine biology. I asked myself, can I really see myself as a musician? No. Marine biologist? Not really. What exactly had I spent four years doing? Apparently learning to sing, ballroom dance, sucba dive, and wash glassware. I didn't regret it a bit, I just wasn't sure what my next step would be.

I experimented with part-time work as an EMT. Through a friend (it's astounding how many job opprotunities are revealed through friends and connections), I found a job opening at a dialysis clinic and I had looked it up online to learn what it was.

As a dialysis technician, my job was complex enough that it gave me very real and important responsibilities that could have had life-threatening consequences for my patients if I didn't perform them well. As far as my job position went, however, I was at the bottom. It was a very valuable and humbling experience for me, and I learned useful teamwork skills and the importance of professionism. I saw a wide variety of public health and social issues as the relate to delivery of care. End-of-life issues abound in dialysis, so I go my share of firsthand medical ethics exposure as well. I spent far more time with the patients than the nephrologist did: 3—5 hours per treatment, with each patient getting 3 treatments per week.

Through this work experience I decided that healthcare was where I wanted to be. Being a physician fit my desire for a role in patient care plan management, with an interest in health policy and public health.

I'll admit that when I took time off, part of me felt like my peers were passing me by, like I was somehow falling behind schedule on the expected timeline for my life. I've learned, however, that every meaningful timeline is individual.