At the end of my senior year of college, I got married. My husband and I talked extensively about our hopes for the future. He wanted to go into teaching. I still hadn’t determined a career path. We both wanted to have four children. The week after we got married, he started a teacher credentialing program. He promised to support me if I decided to return to school after we had children.
The year after I graduated, I took a class at my local community college and found my dream job. I loved the intimate environment and the focus on teaching. Teaching at a community college would allow me to stay connected with the science I love, give me a creative outlet (lesson planning) and involve me in the lives of many students. It would also allow me to teach part time when my husband and I had small children, then transition into a full time position when the children started school.
The year my husband finished his teaching credential, I returned to school. I finished my Master’s degree in one year, while continuing to work part time. My job at the college paid for part of my tuition, and I graduated debt free.
It took a year to find a teaching position. During that year, I continued to work part time and I acted as a teaching assistant for a Biology class at my alma mater. Finally, I landed a part time job at a local community college teaching Biology for non-majors. I loved it!
When my daughter was born, I took two semesters of maternity leave and my husband and I started talking about our next steps. He had been teaching eighth grade for six years and was beginning to burn out. He applied to teach abroad. He didn’t get a job. The next year, he applied to graduate school.
In the meantime, after six semesters of teaching the same course, I needed a change. I had begun to teach online and write. When we moved to a new state for my husband’s doctoral program, I decided to try freelance science writing. I thought it would allow me to keep in touch with the science I loved, have fun conversations with new people, and schedule my work around my family’s needs. Two years later, just as I was getting established, I had a complicated pregnancy. Four months in the hospital gained me a medically fragile son, but killed my writing career.
As my son gained strength, I began applying for teaching jobs. When my son turned two, I was hired part-time at two local colleges. My teaching schedule dovetailed with my husband’s flexible graduate school schedule and we did not need any childcare.
The next semester, in addition to writing his dissertation, my husband went back to teaching eighth grade. I turned down an offer to teach full time, continued splitting my time between work and home, and found part-time child care. At the same time, I began to think about my future career plans.
While I love teaching, most community colleges offer a limited range of courses. I worried that I would get bored teaching the same class again and again. Also, my lack of a doctorate limits my earning potential. As my husband suffers from a chronic medical condition, I wanted to make sure our family could survive on my salary alone. In addition, because my pregnancies (there had been five of them, but only two live births) had each been traumatic, my husband and I decided there would be no more children. When my daughter started kindergarten, I missed her. With no more children to come, I realized I would need something to fill the gap that would develop when my son started school.
I began to consider a return to school myself. My teaching load included courses in Anatomy and Physiology. I enjoyed teaching but envied my students, many of whom were enrolled in nursing school. At age 35, I began exploring the idea of applying to medical school.
I took this exploration very slowly. First, I talked to admissions officers. Then, I shadowed my son’s cardiologist. Then, I studied for the MCAT. Then, I shadowed another doctor. Then, I took the MCAT. Then, I talked to some more admissions officers. At every step, I paused to reflect whether I wanted to proceed. Every step felt somehow necessary and right.
A year later, my husband completed his doctorate. He was offered a great full time job with average pay and poor benefits. The same week, I was offered a full time job at one of the schools where I had been teaching. My position had low pay and great benefits. It also allowed me to expand my knowledge of human health and disease. We both accepted and increased my son’s enrollment at his Spanish-immersion daycare. He now attends 22 hours a week and loves it! That was in July.
On December 21st, I was accepted into medical school. I have asked to defer my matriculation for a year so I can start the same year my son starts kindergarten.
I never would have predicted the course my life has taken. Regardless of what happens next, I am so happy to be where I am today. I am satisfied with each of the decisions my husband and I made regarding our careers and our family. It was important to me that I spend time at home with my children while they were young–I wanted it. It was equally important that I leave the children in my husband’s capable hands while I went to work–both so that I could have fun and retain job skills and so they could develop their own relationships with each other–without my interference.
-Submitted by Jesse
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