Freshman year of college I went in some what open minded. My technical major was "Undecided Liberal Arts," but I knew I wanted something in the health field. I always said I wanted any job that included me wearing a white lab coat of any kind. I did some searching in between my doing nothing and partying.
Perfect example of me sitting doing nothing. A lot of that happened freshman year
And then there was the party side to it....
There is the possibility that I spent so much time in health services with tonsil issues, that I finally decided on a career path. Nursing! Go me! I was all set and ready to go. I got home from college, had my tonsils out the next day, and three days later started summer school. I had to catch up on biology if I was going to be a nursing major. I spent my ENTIRE summer taking classes, Monday-Friday from 9am-12pm. The day before I left for my sophomore year was my last final for the summer. I will say I didn't put all my effort into the second half. By that point I got my first grades back from BIO 101, and started slacking a little for BIO 102. I got back to school and was ready to start off on my nursing track. I was a nursing major and was ready to go. I started taking my anatomy (loved) and chemistry (hated) classes. Then the summer class grades came in. I got a C+ in Bio 102. There was a clear (apparently) policy in place that QU could not accept any transfer credit below a B- from another university. I was immediately pulled from my anatomy class, because I no longer had the prerequisites to take it, and was stuck in limbo. I met with the head of the health science department and we switched me from nursing to Health Science Studies major. By having this I was going to also have to stay an extra year to finish my nursing degree. I got through the first semester and knew it wasn't for me. I was enjoying my sophomore year to say the least, and my chemistry grades were taking the rough end of it.
Party time all the time sophomore year
I switched my major to undeclared health science and picked up a minor in psychology. If you are keeping count this is the 4th major I had by my second semester sophomore year. I got back to school and started taking my psychology classes for the spring semester. I LOVED every psychology class I took. I thought long and hard, and had a few margaritas (kidding, sort of), and made an important decision. I would yet again switch my major (major number 5!) to Psychology!
Gotta love a good margarita!
There wasn't a psychology class that I didn't love. Junior year came and went. I added sociology as a minor and started to narrow down the field within psychology that I liked. I started off senior year taking all psychology classes that dealt with health psychology. I loved, and did well in, all of these classes. Senior year was also the year of my first half marathon!
Clearly the night before, because day of was a DISASTER
Second semester sophomore year my life was taken over by my thesis. My topic was childhood obesity and social withdrawal. Please see here, here, here, here, here, here, or here to find status's about just how much work I was doing. Ignore all my complaining in the majority of it, because as hard as I worked on it, I loved the topic. Because all of you are wondering I don't get to brag about this enough, I received a 92 on the written thesis and a 97 on the presentation. I know, I was awesome. After that senior year life was much more relaxed and fun!
Margaritaville inside Mohegan Sun . We randomly became friends with this guy
Finally it was graduation time. I really enjoyed every area of Psychology I worked in, but had no job prospects when I was graduating. I mean zero. I went on one job interview, that I apparently was not qualified for. None the less I had to graduate and go out in the world.
Yay! Graduation day. What are you doing tomorrow Amy? Oh I don't know I have NO JOB!
At least we didn't have to move out of our house for a few weeks.
Anyways. There is a purpose to memory lane. And no it was not just to tell you how awesome I did on my thesis, although I'm sure you did appreciate that part. After graduation I had a few weeks to hang around CT and finish up my internships before moving home. I also met the bf, you know, little stuff.
I headed back to Boston and sat on my couch for a day. Then I spent the entire next day applying for jobs. Day 3 of being home I started my waitressing job again. Day 4 of being home I was offered a 6 week summer position to help out in the finance office of the high school near me. My brother went there, as did just about every other male family member, and my mom currently worked there. They needed some help and an excel pro, that was me! So I had two part time jobs making good money while looking for my full time job. At some point I realized I was not only good at what I was doing, but that I enjoyed it! Shocking! I talked to my boss at the beginning of August, and got the job full time. I worked on the budgets, admissions, financial aid, financial reports, I could go on and on. You all know how this story ends. I quit my job and move to NY, jobless.
When I was on the search for jobs, I looked for colleges and high schools for admissions. I was good at what I was doing and I enjoyed it. I figured why not continue to look for jobs in this area. I got the job at the college and life continued. If you checked my All About Amy, you'll see I said that I was interested in being a school counselor. This was in line with working in admissions and etc.
Possibly our first picture?
When I was on the search for jobs, I looked for colleges and high schools for admissions. I was good at what I was doing and I enjoyed it. I figured why not continue to look for jobs in this area. I got the job at the college and life continued. If you checked my All About Amy, you'll see I said that I was interested in being a school counselor. This was in line with working in admissions and etc.
Ok ok, the point of all this? At some point after college I lost the idea of what I had planned to do and worked so hard for. I created a new plan out of no where that I would work in admissions for however long and then go to school counseling. No plans for health psychology. I use to, and still do, LOVE everything that was health psychology related. I gave up my ideas for this field so quickly, and left it in the dust for job security. I should mention that I know this is not the worst reason to give up an idea and plan. The other night though Paul and I were talking about weight loss. He may or may not have been told recently by a few people just how skinny he is (side note, I think he is perfectly healthy, I just like to push buttons). We discussed what he should be eating now, changing between weight loss and maintaing weight, and all things along those lines. I started to realize how much I missed having these, and other conversations, about health, weight loss, and all psychology related to it.
Am I doing anything about this right now? No, not at all. I have gone as far as thinking about it for two days now, and writing a blog post about it. I haven't gone forward with what I will do with the fact that I miss this area of my life. I would love to get back into health psychology, but at the moment, I also like having a job and paying my bills. I needed to write this though to remind myself from time to time that originally, I had other plans for my future. Maybe I will go forward with it, maybe I won't, I am only 24 after all. I don't want to forget anymore though about what my original plan was.
Thank you all for indulging in my randomness and walk down memory lane. If anything does change on this front, you will most likely be some of the first people to know.
Happy Thursday everyone :)
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