Grown-up Decisions

In exactly one month from today, I will turn 23. For most people (other than my friends that are still at Auburn), I'm still very young and the people at the hospital I did my internship at reminded me of that every day. I am the second youngest in my class and people are surprised that I'm about to be let loose in the real world to help save peoples lives (it frightens me sometimes too!) But sooner than my birthday is my final undergraduate graduation and my board of registry exam. Am I ready for it right at this moment? No, probably not. Will I be ready for it in a week and a half when I'm suppose to take it? I think so, but keep praying none-the-less. But if you subtract preparing for the comprehensive final and the board and all the worries that come with the possibilities of not passing either one and just have wasted the last five years of you life (so melodramatic), there's still a big decision to be made..... well, not so much for me, but for some of my friends. So you've got two diplomas, a certificate of clinical experience completion, and a license saying that you probably won't kill anyone if you run their tests, so what? What are you going to do next? Get a job? Where? What section? What schedule? Working holidays?

For me, these answers came easily. I had one interview... just one.... one day... one hour at probably the best opportunity that I would have for a very long time. And I was offered a job..... in Transfusion Medicine, or Glorified Bloodbanking.... which I LOVE FYI..... at the Mayo Clinic. Needless to say, I accepted it, but there was a momentary period of doubt. I was accepting a job that is 19 hours or more away from everything that I know. 19 hours away from southern football games.
19 hours away from my best friend that is truly the only one that gets me, which at times I'm not completely sure she understands either. 19 hours away from hot summer days and rainy afternoons.
19 hours away from my mama and the her random cold medicines.
19 hours away from my daddy telling me my cars making a weird noise.
19 hours away from the entire town shutting down because the is a possibility that one bridge in the southwest corner of the county could acquire one patch of ice that will probably melt by noon.
But I took the job, because I know that even though these things are so far away from me, they'll still be there for me to come home too whenever I feel lonely. I had to be a little selfish and think about what was best for my future and the things that I wanted to do. Sure I'm still a little scared about going somewhere the I know no one, but I'll meet people (besides, everyone's going to want to hang out with me and my southern accent.) And I am a little scared that I might not be smart enough for the job, but you can only learn by trying. There might not be another time in my life when I can go anywhere in the world (well, I'll say in the country, so mama won't have an anxiety attack), and not worry about how it's going to affect someone else. My family will always be there and Cynthia, well she no longer has a choice of getting rid of me. I am single, I am young, and I don't even have any big furniture to move. So why not?

I want to say to my friend that I having issues with deciding where to work, GO! Go somewhere away from your hometown. Go to the best opportunity. If someone tries to restrict you with a deadline before you've seen all the options, then pass them by, because they know that you'll probably have a better opportunity than they're offering. Stop restricting yourself by worrying about if your going to hurt someone's feelings; you don't have anyone's feelings to really hurt. Just make a decisions; whether it is to turn don't he jobs that are trying to pressure you into something you're not too sure about or it's to accept the job. Just go and do something. You have reached the point where it's time to make that decision. You've actually put it off a year by having an internship. But now's the time, take the best opportunity for you, don't worry about anyone else because they're not going to face the consequences of your choices in the future. Here's your big chance.. decide.