When I Grow Up, I Want To Be A...

I wanted to be a pediatrician

...pediatrician. My mom will tell you that I wanted to be a pediatrician from a very young age. I remember getting rid of some old boxes at old house on Marigny Street in New Orleans and finding that large-lined, greenish handwriting paper that you used to write on when you were first learning how to write. It said something to the effect of, "I want to be a pediatrician." My cousin and I talked about being pediatricians together when we grew up. She was a year ahead of me in school and also aspired to be pediatrician. Well, neither of us are pediatricians. She got her undergrad from Yale, went to med school in New Orleans, and is a family practice doctor in Mississippi. Neither of us are pediatricians, and since she's not in the Navy, we'll likely never work together, but we both ended up in the medical field.

Service Record Photo

I've been wondering for a while where I might end up in the hospital. The majority of medical folks in the Navy are highly motivated adrenaline junkies who feed off things like critical care, ER, med-surg, and those high speed jobs. Fortunately, there are those people for those jobs. I don't think I'm one of those people. I had a blast being with the Marines, and I think that fed my adrenaline needs for now. I want to find my way back to the Marine Corps eventually, but now isn't the time. So, with that said, I'll be going to the pediatric floor at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth. I picked this department, and most of the people are getting the departments they're requesting. I haven't been to the pediatric portion of the new nurse program yet, but I'm excited to be there. After I am done with this program next month, I'll have six weeks of orientation on the pediatric floor before I'll be on my own.

EKG Class

For the rest of this week, we're in an EKG class. It started yesterday and will end on Friday. I'm happy to be in this class because it's been a while since I've looked at this stuff between being on leave, TAD for a month, ODS for a month, and then more leave. Where did the summer go? Fortunately though, I remember a lot more about it than I thought I would. When we started the class yesterday, I could hear Dr. McCarley's voice in Critical Care class at SFA saying, "Well...is there a P-wave for every QRS complex? Are the P-waves shaped the same? Do the P's march?" While I still lack some confidence and question myself often, knowing that I was trained at the best school by the best instructors is reassuring.

So...what did you want to be when you grew up? Are you that now? And if not, why aren't you? Would you change if you could?