This is my fourth year of college. I’ve had “senior credits” for the past 3 semesters. I’m ready to be in the real world. But I’m not graduating this year….how is that possible? Oh right, I transferred colleges after my first year, I changed my major 3 times and I added a minor pretty late in the game (a minor that doesn’t co-exist with my major so I’m on a completely different track). This is the year though, that I finally feel like I’m doing the right schooling for me. This finally feels like I am working toward my life career and working with the right people. This is the year that I gave up the ideas on what I should be doing logically to what I want to do without being afraid.

I’m an Audiology major with a minor in Professional and Technical Writing. I knew I always wanted to be in the healthcare field, heck, my high school was a medical charter school so I was basically set on that track for life. But the internal problem I always faced was that my strongest skill was not math and science - the main subjects in health science. My strongest suit has always been writing and English but I knew I wouldn’t make that great of a living compared to working in healthcare. Don’t get me wrong, healthcare has also been my passion forever and I couldn’t give up on that dream either. So I went from a nursing major to occupational therapy to speech therapy and now here we finally are, Audiology. In the back of my mind I always had the thought of majoring in English and becoming a professor at a fancy university - but I decided on a more logical possibility and have a minor in Professional and Technical writing, which will work great in my audiology field when I need to do some research and maybe write my own book someday.

This year I started my specific Audiology classes and clinic hours and I’ve never felt so at home. This finally feels like where I am supposed to be in the sense that I completely understand what is being taught. I am so absorbed and obsessed with the ideas, the diseases and the practices to fix what is wrong, that I don’t even feel like I am wasting my time anymore. I feel like this is what matters, this is how I am going to be good at my job. I am totally invested in learning to be the best and work well with my colleagues. I feel comfortable being in the clinic as an undergraduate - I don’t feel like the professors and graduate students look down at me, they actually want to help me be the best audiologist I can be.

I have found my confidence again in myself and intellectual abilities and I couldn’t be more excited for what is to come. Sure, I will be 27 years old when I finally have my Doctorate in Audiology, but hey, I’ll love my job and my life and I’ll be working with people - like I’ve always wanted to do. And you can call me Dr. Murphy, that’s a win. So before you keep asking someone “oh, aren’t you supposed to be graudating? It’s been four years…”, maybe pause and ask how school is going and what I’m working on currently. There is no timeline for creating your dream life, you just gotta commit and do it until something feels right.