Tuesday, July 22, 2008

What's next? the confused mind of a college leaver


As this blogger's college days are coming to an end the question "what's next?" is forefront in my mind. 

Four years of Spanish lit and Sociology and an extra year doing a Masters in Literary Translation, thrown in for good measure, have done little to set me on the path of 'what I want to do with my life', or have they? Leaving college is a confusing time for most people. Entering the so called 'real world' is not an easy transition, specially when most of your friends are ahead of you and have been 'real people' for the past two years or so. How to become a 'real person'? How are you supposed to get a job that 'matters' (to you) if you have no idea what you'd like to do, or more specifically, how you use what you have done for the past five years to do something you really like?

I always wanted to be a doctor. Always. I still have memories of telling people, aged 3 or 4, that I wanted to be a doctor. All through school I wanted to study medicine. All the way through to my final year in school I wanted to be a doctor. Then I did a degree in arts. As you do. The desire to study medicine never left me, it was just put on hold, or so I told myself. Now, five years later, that desire is still rife. However I do not want to disregard these five years of my life, which, at the end of the day, I can't really say that I regret doing. The study of literature and sociology has given me a tridimensional vision of the human being and society. The understanding of biology and science can only be complete if there is an awareness and understanding of that human essence that escapes definition, that escapes science, that escapes biology. I have learned to delve past the surface of literary works, to analyze the way language has been set down, to scratch the surface of the mind behind the text, and in addition, translating these products of human creativity has exposed the transient nature of humans, and language, which is what makes us what we are, for without speech we cannot express that human essence that escapes definition, that escapes science, that escapes biology.  

Through this blog I hope to set down in words my undefinable essence, and through this post-college-years journey I hope to be able to find answers to "what's next?" Is my desire to help people improve their health compatible with my five years of studying literature/sociology/translation? Could speech and language therapy be the answer I am looking for?  

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