Back then
As an inexperienced young adult of 18 years, the task was set on me to pick a path for the type of work I would want to spend most of my waking moments worrying about. For a lot of us, obviously, this monumental decision isn’t easy. At the time, I was discovering my love for fitness and particularly enjoyed the subjects of Anatomy and Chemistry. Combining these interests and my passion for helping others, I decided that going into medicine might be the answer for me and so I enrolled for a Bachelor’s of Science in Biochemistry.
The program was great, I enjoyed what I was studying and felt motivated to overcome the challenges required to move forward. Courses that would make a lot of others shudder like Organic Chemistry or Genetics, I found genuine pleasure in working in. In conjunction with school, I started working which provided gaining more and more life experience outside of academics. Towards the end of my studies, the realities of what working in medicine would be like began to materialize more and more. It was not like I was ignorant up to this point; I spoke with many healthcare professionals about moving into this domain, but nevertheless some doubt grew in me. I ignored it, and moved forward eventually claiming my Bachelor’s degree.
Then
It was now time for me to take the MCAT. I needed to study. I procrastinated by applying to many jobs that one with a Bachelor’s in Biochemistry could do. Nothing panned out so I began studying begrudgingly. The growing doubt about the field had kept growing and I was doing my research more and more. The amount of time, the insanely large amount of debt and the late and many hours. These things did not align with the person I had become since I had made the decision to pursue medicine. I stopped studying and communicated these feelings with my parents. They were accepting but pushed me to continue. So I continued, half-heartedly. I did not study very hard and performed below average on the MCAT. Luckily, to combat this blow to my ego, I had just found a job, an exciting new door in my life to blanket the downfall of low test scores. The intricacies of the job itself are a story for another time but a future in chemistry did not seem to match what I desire out of life more so than medicine. I felt like a rat in a maze and needed to find a way out.
I spent countless hours to find a way into a new field. Maybe marketing? A lot of people suggested coding bootcamps but I was not very intrigued. I signed up to go back to college for a B.S. in Computer Science in which I planned on studying while I continued to work. I kept looking into new ventures, and finally I looked more and more into coding bootcamps and it seemed a much better option for someone in my predicament after finally looking into it a bit more. I did extensive research on the different programs and Flatiron seemed to be best for me. I found a marriage of analysis, mathematics and coding in Data Science and it was an obvious choice. I made preparations and left my job.
Now
I have completed the program at Flatiron and I’m glad to say that it was a great pleasure to dip my toes into the world of programming and Data Science. I have learned a lot of practical skills and I’m excited to leverage my knowledge at my next place of employment. I am currently on the job search in the middle of the Corona Virus pandemic and it has been rough but I continue to work and learn and I look to the future with optimism.
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