How is it possible that a series of seemingly meaningless and unrelated events can manipulate our lives with such drastic modifications? To one person, two events may appear to be completely separate, lacking any connection whatsoever, but to others, the same events can be intertwined with personal meanings and change your life in ineffable ways. I have events that have said impacts on my life, ultimately leading me to the career path that I intend to pursue: pediatrics. I realized my affections towards kids and my interesting curiosity for medicine because of these memories, and without them I wouldn’t be who I am today.

I sat on the grainy sand, with my toes in the water and seashells in my hands. The blank white clouds rolled across the sky like the foam of the tips of the waves as they tumbled and bubbled across the water.  Families and couples were sprinkled all across the beach, their laughs and conversations carried by the wind. I dipped my head back and closed my eyes, bathing in the sunlight.

I had been in a fairly grouchy mood, as I was sleep deprived from repetitive nights of staying up until two o’clock in the morning and waking up at eight o’clock promptly. I had secluded for time to recuperate, relax, and wake myself up, so at the time all that I had wanted was to be left to my own thoughts.

“Hello!” came a minuscule voice from behind me, speaking with a slight lisp, “Would you like to buy some lemonade? It’s only 50 cents!”

I turned my head to see a little boy, only four feet tall with brown hair plastered to his head from the brackish water. He was at most 5 years old, and carried an aura around with him that could make a psychopath feel affection.
“Sure, I’d love to!” I reply as I swiftly reached down into my pockets for a couple of quarters. When I hand them to him, he flashes me a gargantuan grin, amazed and ecstatic to have made a sale.

“Thank you!” he delightfully yells. He handed me a cup of lemonade and skipped off to sell some more.
Following that encounter, my overall mood skyrocketed, from down and under, to flying high. I remember the way that the dynamo boy’s overall excitement and liveliness made it virtually impossible to feel gloomy, in any way shape or form.

To this day I still recall that moment, but I hadn’t quite gotten to the point where I realized that I had wanted to become a pediatrician, only that I absolutely adored kids. The process of realizing the fact that I wanted to be a pediatrician isn’t quite as simple as, “Hey, a cute kid!”

The next step to my insight started with a little bit of a separate career choice, although not dissimilar. It was just after an appointment with my therapist, and as I had nonchalantly strolled out, a little girl bounded by me. She was wearing basic jeans and a magenta sweatshirt, littered with butterflies and flowers. Her pigtails bounced as she jumped up to reach and give my therapist a hug, her grin spreading across her face, so wide that it looked like an orange peel smile, just without the orange peel. My therapist appeared taken aback, his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide behind his glasses. After regaining his wits, he returned the affection.

I knew how much my therapist was helping me, and by the looks of it, he was helping her out quite a bit, too. Watching that little girl, and her affections towards my therapist, I began to realize something: I want to make a difference. I want to be able to impact a child’s life in a way that will last and stay with them, thus guiding me to the conclusion of becoming a pediatric psychologist.

Psychology has always amazed me, just the fantastical concept that we can understand someone, and possibly even predict what is soon to come, but it wasn’t ideal for me. Even today, I still plan on taking psychology as a second major in college, but my main focus is on a pediatrician.

The event that turned my attention to becoming a doctor wasn’t a heartwarming time, and it didn’t touch you to the point of tears. In fact, it may seem a bit odd. I began to watch House.

Basically, House is a TV show about a doctor who treats patients with diseases and disorders that other doctors couldn’t diagnose. Obviously there is more to it than that, but I won’t go into much further detail.

Watching all of the different diseases, disorders, chemicals, medicines, and so on and so forth really turned me in the direction of becoming a doctor. I find the fact that all of these outside effects can affect our bodies with such drastic results. The further I looked into the subject, the more I got pulled in, to the point where I wanted to turn it into my career.

Basically, I had an insatiable desire to morph two dissimilar interests into one career. All of my interests in these two topics vary throughout the years, but they met in the middle to help me see what it was that I wanted. As I said before, reaching the ultimate decision of becoming a pediatrician isn’t an uplifting story that makes you want to run and hug your sibling, or child, or someone that you love, but it all affected me in inexplicable ways, ways that will forever impact and stay with me.