Epiphany: Greed Within Careers

One of the biggest questions one gets asked, what do you want to be when you grow up and why, has been taken from elementary answers to answers that lead to greed. I remember this question getting thrown my way only my second year in elementary school. I answered with sincerity that I wanted to be like my mom, an RN nurse with pride in helping people feel better. Children always have the meaningful answer to questions like this without even knowing it but as we grew older those sincere, thoughtful answers turned to greed. People only wanted to further their education to make a bigger buck, to be richer than others.

Truthfully, the worst part is that the greed shows in our society. There are greed and corruption in any system starting from big corporate businesses going all the way down to small self-owned stores. The hardest realization, for me, was knowing the corrupted ways of the medical field. As a Neuroscience major looking to get a doctorates degree, I take full pride in the medical field and in being a good doctor. I’ve come to the realization that all doctors are not good doctors. I say this because of the drug epidemic that has hit the United States. There is a lot of scenarios where doctors are just prescribing medications so they can pocket a little more cash than usual but with doing this there are consequences. People are getting addicted to these high-grade drugs that are being prescribed to them or opening a door for substance abuse.

But this is not why I’m writing this; I had an epiphany. I don’t want people to worry if I’m going to be one of those doctors who prescribe high-grade medications just to pocket more cash. I don’t want people to be afraid of doctors at all but it starts with knowing right from wrong. You need to be in your line of study for the right reasons. I never wanted to get my doctorates in Neuroscience so I could make six figures but I wanted the ability to help people. I want to help people specifically in the brain, spine, and nerve areas of their body. I want to be able to make a difference, save lives, and prove to others that there are medical solutions for tragedies.

Most of all, this is a reminder and a piece of advice for anyone who is trying to find a true meaning to their life path. Everyone always tells you to go into a career that entails something you love but they’re missing important details. It is true that you should participate in careers you love but you should also make sure the negatives you have about the job do not out-weigh the positives. You need to have a strong statement to why you want or love your chosen career. Greed needs to be separated from emotion or we’re all going to fail creating a safe future for our children. At the end of the day, no matter how hard, emotional, or back-breaking the job was, you should still love it for the same reasons you got into it for.