About damn time…
I started this blog in June, but I haven’t had any time to blog about anything, because going to school and working sort of takes up every last minute I have (usually).
My desk is a cluttered mess. A coffee mug engraved with the word “Mrs.” is empty, and consistently nudging me to go refill. You might infer from this that I’m a woman, but I am not. I am just not that selective with my coffee mugs.
I’m forty years old. I have been teaching piano for twelve years. I’m quite tired of reminding five year olds which hand is their left hand. I need a career change.
I decided this about a year ago. I wanted to get into something that gave me the immediate satisfaction of knowing I had impacted someone’s life in a positive, meaningful way.
My thought process was then something like: Healthcare -> too late to be a doctor -> fluids? no -> search for health care careers with less interaction with bodily fluids -> land on 2-year imaging modality programs -> decide on sonography based on salary outlook.
I already had almost a hundred credit hours from attending school off and on over the last fifteen years. They were scattered topics, to be sure– but at least the gen eds were out of the way, so I could focus on taking those prerequisites which were specific to the sonography program.
And something weird happened while I was taking these classes. The thought of going to med school kept popping up. And it seemed like each excuse I gave against the idea fell flat.
The predominant one: I’m too old. I’ll be 50 by the time I finish residency.
-> I’ll be 50 anyway.
I’m too old – schools won’t want to accept me.
-> A quick Google search shows this to be untrue. It seems schools enjoy taking nontraditional students, and older students have life experience which the schools value.
It’s too expensive.
-> Only if you don’t finish. Loans will, of course, accumulate – but if you finish you’ll have an excellent salary to pay them off with.
So, by three months into my Spring semester of Sonography Prerequisites, I had decided: I want to go to med school. Specifically for Radiology.
Why radiology? A topic for another post. As it stands, my path looks like:
- finish sonography program
- get job in sonography field
- finish pre-reqs for applying to med school (coursework, MCAT)
- apply to med school within 2-3 years of today.
I figured I would write about it so you can share in my ups and downs, and maybe you, too, can become a NonTradMadLad™
(Or maybe you already are, and want to share your experience? Email me.)
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