Finding an Unplanned Path

I feel like I should back up a bit before I move forward.   It is rather ironic that I find myself in education (more on that later), when school was not something I particularly loved.   I can’t say I hated school or that I got bad grades, because neither is true.  I was a good student.  School was hard for me in that I was pretty shy, so I was not the one to always raise my hand and shout out the answers.  Well, you did not do that anyway in a Catholic school with nuns who were always ready to smack that ruler across your hand!

By the time I was headed to college, I knew what I wanted to do and knew I wanted to get through college quickly.  I had heard about computer programming and just felt that was going to be the perfect profession for me.  I would be out in 2 years and ready to start a fantastic and exciting career.  There was one little flaw in my plan.  I could not grasp the computer language that was needed for programming in any way, shape, or form.  Even extra tutoring from my best friend was not helping.  I just did not get it.  It was all Greek to me.  In fact, I probably could have learned Greek better than that darn computer mumbo jumbo. 

I spent the next 5 years in college having no clue what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I took a lot of general classes and at one point thought I would like accounting. I did well in those classes because I have always been pretty good at math, but the problem there was that it was Boring, and yes, with a capital Boring!   I finally decided to get a secretarial degree just to finally graduate.  I was determined not to spend 5 years in college and walk away without a degree. 

There are times when I feel almost embarrassed that those 5 years resulted in only a 2-year Associate's degree.  People get PhD’s in shorter time.  As it turns out, that was time well spent for this shy little student.  You know how some people get out of high school and head to Europe to wander around and find themselves? Well, my college years were my Europe. I met so many great people, some of whom are still my friends today.  I met my future husband, and in July, we celebrate 35 years of marriage!  I worked on lighting on one of the plays put on by the theater department. When your boyfriend is a theater major turned audiologist, you tend to land in situations like that! I lost some of my shyness—not all of it, but more than I ever thought. Obviously I took a lot of classes, but really, I enjoyed almost all of them, leaving out the computer classes, of course.  I learned how to type, on a manual typewriter no less, and little did I know that was the start of a career that eventually took me right back into education. Talk about a full circle!

The most important thing I learned in those 5 years?  I found out I am not without intelligence just because I could not understand the in’s and out’s of computers.  The simple truth is that I just did not have the aptitude for it.  I sometimes wonder if it was more that it really was not my passion, and that’s why the understanding would not come.  When you find your passion, the understanding comes right along with it; maybe not easily, but it’s there.

Now you might ask what does any of this have to do with medical transcription?  Aside from the fact that all of the above led me to this profession, as it turns out, it’s also a life lesson I can share with my students.  Some find they don’t have the aptitude for MT, and of course, that can be a big disappointment, and they will tell me they feel so stupid or they feel they wasted their time.  I tell them my story and what I got out of what at first was a discouraging time in my life.  Education is never a waste of time, but beyond that, finding you are not good at something does not equate to stupidity.  It only means you have to find a different path that takes you to your full circle.   Life is good.  Enjoy your day!