Did I ever think I would get here? Not really, no. Growing up as an only child, I was constantly surrounded by adults, and I think this launched my ever-present mindset of wanting to go into the future, and I never really focused myself on the present.

I know I still have that mindset, and that is partially because the school system kind of forces its students to make up their minds about what they want to do with the rest of their life. For example, when I was in kindergarten and in 1st grade, I was asked twice what I wanted to be when I grew up. When I was in kinder, I had put that I wanted to be an author. I'm not too sure why; probably because I really enjoyed reading books when I was little (shoutout to the real MVP the Accelerated Reading (AR) program). In 1st grade, when I was asked that same question, I had been so blindsided by the question, and I just chose the option of being a hairdresser. That's partially because I would go with my grandma to her hairdresser Santos, who also styles my hair, my mom's hair, and my aunt's hair, and I always saw that as such an art. So, throughout my elementary years, I was very confused about what I wanted to do.

During my 8th grade year of middle school, we had to take an Information Technology (IT) class, which was basically a class that was designed to help you become a better typer, where we played various typing games and exercises. In this class, my teacher, Ms. Jimenez, had us all create an account in a website called CareerCruising, and we had to take a short test that would tell us what types of careers we could potentially be good at. One of my results had been a psychiatrist, and I was really happy about that.

I've always been really passionate about mental health advocacy in America and in my own community. Being someone who has struggled with severe performance anxiety, which would later turn into a diagnosis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), I've always felt that some regulations and new policies should be put into place with regards to mental illness. I've always loved being around and helping people, which is another reason why psychiatry felt right for me.

Later, during my high school years was when I was really intrigued by science, and I got involved in my high school's science UIL team, where my favorite section had been chemistry. So, from here, I knew that I was interested in the brain as well as in chemistry, so I thought of studying brain chemistry. Career choices that I was really interested in were neurosurgeon, neurologist, psychiatrist, psychologist, counselor, therapist, etc. Because of my current interests, when enrolling in colleges, I had always put that my expected major would be neuroscience or any major along those lines.

Here I am, now at UT Austin, as a neuroscience major. Coming into the third year of my college career, and let me just say that I have had so many different career idea changes that I'm sure it's driven my mom crazy.

When I came into UT, I had the idea that I wanted to go to medical school, because science really intrigued me, and I'd always wanted to be a part of the medical field in some way by being in other outside organizations and volunteering opportunities. I soon noticed that I wasn't that straight-A student no matter how hard I tried, and that was so discouraging to me. I then took other factors into consideration, such as an eight hour MCAT, the possibility of being on call as a physician, the stress of a high college GPA, and a long schooling process; all of these things really just made me decide that I wasn't super interested in the medical field anymore.

During this time, I was also in a research program for freshmen, where my research stream focused on finding different inhibitors for the possibility of new drugs for various diseases. These inhibitors were found through various experimental lab and computerized experimental procedures. This all made me really fascinated by the career of pharmacy. Because of this, I am currently trying to get licensed as a pharmacy technician.

But, as time went on in college, I found that I would mainly be doing similar everyday tasks of checking medications compounded by pharmacy technicians, very minimally talking to patients, and I'd be behind a counter if I worked in a retail or community pharmacy setting, and I'm personally a very fidgety person who is quite bubbly and likes to be doing other things and talking to many people and being able to really counsel them. Another reason why I decided pharmacy school might not be the move for me is because of how much I'd been struggling this past semester in my Organic Chemistry II class, which I had to drop.

Currently, I am thinking of being a Physician Assistant (PA), because it has elements of being a medical doctor. However, I feel that it might not be as intensive, which would really relieve some stress from me.

This could all change again, but I firmly believe that God will place you where He wants you, and you just have to pray to Him and surrender to Him for complete guidance.