When I Grow Up.

I was asked today by a co-worker what I wanted to be when I grew up. After thinking for a few minutes I could not remember if I ever had any ambitions to be anything. So I went in to the story about how I got to where I am today.


In 1992, as a junior in high school I wanted to be a fighter pilot in the Navy. My dad was a Navy veteran and had lots and lots of stories that he told me about things he had seen and done. I was always fascinated with airplanes and flying and to follow my dad’s footsteps I decided to try and enlist in the Navy. This was also during the first Gulf War and I was worried that there may be a draft. My plan was to join and decide where I wanted to go instead of getting drafted and handed a gun to fight. The draft never happened but that’s a different story altogether.


One day the navy recruiters stopped by my high school in Nebraska and gave a talk to all of us people who did well on our ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) test. I scored highly and was pretty much qualified for most any military job. I first asked what where my chances of being a pilot. They told me I could not for 2 reasons. One, I am 6’2” and two, I wear glasses. So that was out.


Later that summer I decided I would go ahead and take a physical, at a recruiter’s strong suggestion, to see if I could get in to what they called Delayed Entry. I could enlist in-between my Junior and Senior years of high school and guarantee me a spot in the school I wanted right after my High School graduation. I was taken to Denver, Colorado to the Navy Recruiting place and given a military physical. I passed so the next thing I needed to do was decide where I would go to school and what I wanted to learn. First they asked if I wanted to be a Navy Seal. I said no way. Too much danger. Second they asked if I wanted to take the Nuclear Engineer test. I said sure since Physics and Chemistry was one of my stronger points in high school. I didn’t pass that test. My recruiter later told me I missed it by 2 points. Not sure I believe him. After that they asked me what I wanted to do. I called my dad and after a long talk he told me that if I was going to do this that I needed to make sure I did a job I could do after I got out. The recruiter suggested being a Corpsman. The Navy’s hospital people. I asked if I would see any combat as one of those since I knew the Marines got their corpsman from the Navy. He said most likely not but maybe. So I said no. Next I asked if there was a job I could do that would be scientific in nature. He showed me a job description of what they called an Aerographer mate. These guys were the Meterologists/Oceangraphers of the navy. He said I would be going to school at the Naval Air Station in Chicago, Illinois (Great Lakes Naval Training Base) and most likely be stationed on an aircraft carrier. Sounded cool so I enlisted, swore in and went back home to finish my Senior year in high school.


After making this decision I was excited. I had planned to do my 4 years of service and then try to get a job either with the National Weather service or at the Hurricane Center in Coral Gables, Fl. That was all well and good until I got sick in December (92) with later was diagnosed as Ulcerative Colitis. A very painful version of Irritable Bowl Syndrome. The Navy Doctors decided that I would not be a good candidate as a recruit. I received my Medical Discharge letter just prior to my graduation that May. That kind of screwed me. I had not taken my ACT or SAT and I had not even applied to any colleges. I missed most all of the deadlines by then and didn’t know where to go.


My dad was a Methodist preacher back then and one day he received a letter from a small college in Tennessee called Martin Methodist College. It was offering Methodist church members all over the country a tuition paid scholarship, one per state. My dad and I filled out all the paper work and sent it off. Surprisingly enough I got the one for the State on Nebraska. That August my dad drove me from Pawnee City, Nebraska to Pulaski, Tennessee through the Mississippi River flood of 1993.


Once in school I had to pick a major. My first choice was to be an Athletic Trainer. The school had told me that they would have a program set up after I finished all my 2 year prerequisite classes. Well a year into it I found out that the program had been scrapped. So now what? I thought about Aeronautical Engineering. Too much math. Next was Medical School. I thought about that for maybe 10 minutes and said no freaking way. Too much dedication. Back then Martin Methodist was in the process of switching from a 2 year school to a 4 year school. At the end of my second year I decided that I needed to get out of there and I transferred to Columbia State Community College to continue taking classes till I figured out what I wanted to do. That was in 1995.


That year I decided to take some more science classes and I also took a EMT Basic class, which was 2 semesters. I figured I should get a job skill that would get me through college since I didn’t have a scholarship or money from the parents (dad was a preacher supporting a family of 4 on a preachers salary and my mom was sick). I took a job with an ambulance company in Columbia and ended up dropping out of school due to financial and emotional problems I was having with the girl I was living with. I was very young and stupid back then. But again that’s a whole different story.


A year later I moved to Nashville and started working for a private ambulance service in town doing convalescent runs. We did lots of dialysis patients and nursing home runs. I really didn’t like this since there was not really much excitement. I thought about trying to be a Fireman or going to school to finish my Paramedic Certification and working with the Fire Department as a Paramedic. These thoughts all ended one Friday afternoon in May of 1997. I had a really bad accident on the way to refuel my ambulance prior to getting off work. I was not hurt but my partner was pinned in the ambulance and later needed to get a lot of glass out of his arm. Two other cars where involved in this accident. Everyone survived with minor injuries. It happened on Church and 18th ave and made the news that night and the front page of the local news section in the Tennessean the following Saturday. You may remember that if you lived in Nashville then.


After that the ambulance company fired me and I got another job with a different ambulance service in town but was not allowed to drive. I applied for a job at Vanderbilt and started as what they call a Care Partner. Basically it is a Nurse Tech, or Nurses Bitch, type job. I worked on an Orthopedic/Urology post surgical floor. So I did a lot of helping people get out of bed, feeding, dressing changes and helped the Physical Therapist with walking patients. I really hated this job because it was a low paying, high workload and high stress job. I kept my job cause I got accepted to MTSU and they where willing to work around my school schedule. I basically could pick my hours. Plus Vanderbilt had a tuition reimbursement program.


I spent 3 and a half years at MTSU. I first wanted to get in to nursing school. I did one semester of that and had an epiphany on vacation in Destin Florida. I thought to my self, “What the fuck am I doing? All I will be doing is basically the same job I do now but with more responsibility and not much more in pay”. That next Monday I went and changed my major to Biology.


I finished my Bachelor’s degree requirement and received my BS in Biology with a Chemistry minor in Dec of 2001. I applied for a bunch of jobs that spring and was turned down for most all of them. I was trying to apply for a job I thought I would be qualified for.


A friend of mine that I used to work with at the ambulance service was working at Vanderbilt as an EEG (Electroencephalogram) tech. They are the ones that administer the brain wave tests on patients that have seizure disorders. It was a very interesting job. I got to see all kinds of seizures. We did EEG’s on all types of patients, even the neonatal babies. I was always scared of them. A guy of my stature handling babies that fit in the palm of my hand was nerve racking. I did that job for a year and one day I got an email from a researcher a Vanderbilt who got my resume the year before and asked if I wanted a research job. I said yes.


Now, 3 years later, I am working at Vanderbilt in a research lab doing very important things and enjoying my job. I do plan on going to graduate school soon. When I was in my last year at MTSU I was asked to be an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant for the Chemistry Department. Along with a Graduate Teaching assistant we taught freshman level chemistry labs. It was during that time I realized that I wanted to be a teacher. A college level teacher. All it took was one student’s “I understand” light bulb go off. Only took me 7 years to figure out what I want to do. Now I'm on that path.


My future? Graduate school.


So that my winding path to the present day. Interesting how a simple question about what you wanted to be when you grew up can remind us of our path. In my experience most people’s childhood aspirations are not what most people are doing in adulthood.