When I inevitably have to make a final decision for my future, there is one goal that comes to mind. I want to be a part of something bigger than myself. Whether it is learning more about evolution, animals, and our world as a biochemist, helping people find mental closure as a therapist, experimenting with chemicals for the future of sustainable resources as a chemist, or helping people understand each other as a translator, my dream is to make a difference. 

Most of the careers I am interested in require many years of education after highschool through college, graduate school, or programs. Those can be sleep-deprived, competitive, and expensive years. This is what makes choosing a career so daunting. I would consider myself to be a person who doesn’t have a hard time making decisions, but when I start thinking of the future, I doubt myself. My doubt comes to torment me in my thoughts. What if I go through twelve years of a medical program, pay large amounts of money, and study endless amounts just to realize I am not passionate about it? What if I don’t fit in with the other people in the field? What if I don’t have what it takes? I hear stories of people who say they “survived” through med school, how they studied fifteen to twenty hours a day to barely scrape by. Then, they are thrown into residency programs where their time is abused and they work insane shifts, but these people also say that after all, it was worth it just to be able to help people. While I thought about those questions, I decided to banish the what ifs from my mind and I realized that the end result would be worth it for me too. 

“You’re young, you have plenty of time,” Is something that my mom told me once. Adults always tell teenagers that they have all the time in the world to figure out their lives. I feel like that statement is so wrong because time never slows or stops, and as it passes, the future creeps up on you. Before you know it, colleges are pestering you in your email, “Join our team!” “How to apply”, “We want you!”. The pressure of your future keeps building, and building until it all crashes down on you and you have to claw your way out of the rubble to make your decision. 

The field I am most interested in is psychiatry. I like the idea of being able to help people that are mentally struggling with not only words, but medicine too. I was first intrigued when I learned about it in my psychology class and decided to read more about it. Each person is different, not one the same. Therefore, each patient a psychiatrist has is like a different puzzle you have to solve. Living my life in the field of psychiatry would be engaging and unique because no day would be the same. 

I would also get to learn more in depth about the human mind and its mysteries. Going through these programs and classes could stand to let me learn about my own mind, the way I think, and why everyone’s is different. Choosing to study different disorders and ways to combat them with therapy and medicine makes me feel invigorated for the future. I would be able to help people work through anxiety, addiction, and countless other mental struggles. I would be able to have a positive impact in someone’s life. I would be able to make a difference.