I had just barely fallen asleep when I heard the alarm: seven sharp BEEPs and then a mess of tones.
For the third time that night, I donned my boots, reflective jacket, and stethoscope, trundled out of my bunk room, down the small staircase, and into the ambulance bay. I grabbed the dispatch print-out and slunk into the passenger seat of the primary ambulance.
I’ve been more or less obsessed with doctorship for most of my life. For countless Halloweens, I was a doctor, of some sort: a videogame medic in sixth grade, a plague doctor in seventh—not to mention my everlasting obsession with Doctor Who which has consumed me since early childhood. Unsurprisingly, this led me to build grand pre-med aspirations for myself.
With an eye towards medical school, I took an EMT course at the local community college during high school, which allowed me to apply to colleges knowing that I’d be volunteering and gaining 911 experience throughout my undergraduate years. Not only was it interesting, but the lab section allowed me to immediately apply the knowledge we’d covered in lecture in a low-stakes, collaborative team environment (much like Swat’s!).
So, naturally, after coming to Swarthmore, I spent the first couple months of my freshman year applying for my Pennsylvania EMT license and planning a very rigorous, in-depth pre-med schedule. I met once with Gigi, our pre-health advisor, to run through my plan. I had thought of everything! After receiving her blessing, I quickly loaded my first semester with STEM courses and began my pre-med studies.
To fill my first semester, I chose to take first-year French, emboldened by the allure of Swat’s pass/fail semester, along with a linguistics course on syntax. During this semester, I noticed something which surprised me: I was much less interested in my pre-med requirements and much more interested in volunteering than I anticipated; so much so that I often found myself procrastinating studying for biology or chemistry by working (sometimes a little too hard) on my various syntax, German, or French assignments—often doing so while hanging out at the firehouse/EMS station.
This pattern continued through my first two years; I spent more time deeply engaged with patterns of languages and literatures the world over, and less time captivated by biochemistry or physics.
As I look forward to the last half of my time at Swat, I’m spending more time seriously contemplating what I want my life to look like post-graduation, and I’ve slowly come to the realization that my best life may not be one lived in a white coat. This was not an easy conclusion to reach: I spent hours reflecting and meeting with various professors, as well as my dean, who helped me find my path. While I am, of course, a little disappointed, I’m glad that I’ve been able to figure this out before I completed the expensive and arduous medical school application process.
(Note: Of course, should I want to apply to medical school in the future—most students don’t matriculate straight out of undergrad, after all—I know I have the pre-health office and career services in my corner, which is a great feeling!)
Despite all of this, I’m sure I’ll keep volunteering in EMS throughout my adult life. Even if I don’t choose to pursue more education in healthcare, I’ll still be happy to use my skills to serve my community. Something about those tones—the thrill of the call, the satisfaction of helping those in need—they’re addictive!
