An introduction

I've been trying to think of the best starting point for this blog, and I'm having a really hard time doing so. There's so much background that should probably be included, but there's also so much to be said about the here & now, and I don't want my first real post to be a million miles long. I think I'll just have to split the introduction posts between a few days.

"Let's start at the very beginning - a very good place to start..."

Q: Why do you want to be a pharmacist in the first place?

A: I can't tell you how many times I've been asked that since I made the decision 5 or so years ago. I quite literally woke up one day and decided I'd be a pharmacist. For my entire life I've only been "above and beyond good" at one thing - being smart. My sister is artsy, my friends have musical talent, some of my other friends were just born to teach - I'm smart, and I understand math and science. I truly believe we should each recognize the talents we're given and do something with them lest we're denying the world of something great. My biggest passion is people - specifically, making a difference in people's lives. Combine my passion for people with the scientific brain I've been given, and the medical field is quite obviously the place for me. I knew I couldn't be a doctor or nurse because I don't deal well with blood and other nasty stuff. I had absolutely no desire to do all of my work inside people's nasty mouths all day. Pharmacy was the next thing that came to mind, thus it's what stuck. Then I realized pharmacists make a ridiculous amount of money, and that was a plus because it will completely change my life. I wouldn't say I have ever been poor because I've seen poor, and poor breaks my heart. I was a blessed child. My parents never let us want for much of anything, but we were introduced to "money problems" at far too young an age. Knowing that we "didn't have enough money" made me feel bad for everything I ever wanted or needed to ask for. Scholarships and loans (I like to think of loans as "future Kati" - thank you, future me) have paid my way through college and grad school. The money I will make isn't #1 on my list, but it will allow me to live the life I've always dreamed of - not an extravagant life but one without "money troubles" where I feel secure and can travel or have season tickets to the Fox Theatre and the Falcon's games if I so choose. More importantly, I'll be able to donate to organizations such as Teen Advisors (to be introduced in the near future) that have donated to my life and growth and have helped make me the person you know today. Add all of those reasons together + many, many more, and that's why I want to be a pharmacist.

In my next post, I'll tell you about my first (and still current) job in a pharmacy. Also to come, Teen Advisors, Jonathan Hatcher, Mercer CoPHS, and finally the mission. If you guys have any questions that you want to know the answer to, I'll be more than happy to answer each and every one of them. In fact, they'd be very helpful to the direction of this blog. (So leave some comments with questions, pleeease!!)

Thank you so much for reading!
<3 <3 <3

This is the start of something amazing..

The beginning of an end
The beginning of a beginning
Another milestone in my favorite chapter of my life thus far

I've started this blog because I found out yesterday (12/01/10) that I got a spot on the medical mission rotation I applied for only a month ago, and I want to document my experience.

This first blog won't be much of anything; really I'm just posting it so that I can test out the blogger design settings and get everything looking the way I want it to before I share the link to my blog with the internet world. With my next blog I hope to start sharing everything - what I'm thinking, how I'm feeling, new and old information and updates about the mission, etc. - as it comes up. I intend to share, at the very least, some highlights of the essay that I submitted with my application; I hope it will help you understand a little more about the way my heart thinks, how much this trip means to me, and some of the who's, what's and when's of all the why's. I'm sure there will be a few posts that don't pertain to the mission in any way at all, but I hope that'll be okay with all of you. :)

Hopefully I can, more often than not, leave you with a few quotes that are relevant to the mood of the blog post. I like quotes.

"What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from."
-T.S. Eliot

"There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: not going all the way and not starting."
-Buddha
[I find this one is especially appropriate since, chances are, I'll be going to a country whose major religion by a whopping 96% majority is Buddhism.]

<3 <3 <3
Kati