After seeing a few more personal posts, I realized just how much I love learning about the lives of other bloggers. As a result, I decided that I’d occasionally share a bit of my life with you in a new feature called “Life Outside the Page.” I’d really love it if you participated along with me — that way I can get to know all of you a little bit better! And, of course, if you have any requests as to what I should talk about in an upcoming Life Outside the Page post, those are always welcome! : )
Life Outside the Page: What I Wanted to Be When I Grew Up
When I was younger, I kept changing my mind about what I wanted to do when I grew up. I went through a phase of wanting to be a teacher, a squeegee kid (I honestly don’t even know how I thought that was a viable career option), and even a palaeontologist (I blame my obsessive love for The Land Before Time). It wasn’t until I was given a chemistry set when I was about seven or eight that I realized that science was actually pretty cool, and after my puppy Wigeon had to be put down, I realized that what I wanted to do more than anything was to be a veterinarian.
Flash forward a few years to my high school biology classes. Between genetics, learning about the human body, and dissections, I found something that I was incredibly interested in learning more and more about. I applied to university (which was probably one of the most difficult and scary decisions of my life so far), was accepted everywhere I applied, toured so many campuses, and finally decided that I wanted to go to the University of Waterloo for biology.
I’m currently halfway through my second year there, and I absolutely love it! I’ve gotten to take a lot of really interesting courses, including zoology, and microbiology. Even though we weren’t technically supposed to, I took a few pictures of the lab components of these courses, since they’re easily some of my favourite parts of my university career so far — and not just because I have a neat tie-dyed lab coat.
In my third year, I get to start my animal physiology specialization, which means that I get to take almost exclusively animal-related courses for the rest of my university life. I won’t have to take any more chemistry or math… just biology, whatever electives I decide on, and even more biology. I’m really looking forward to it!
Now it’s your turn: is what you’re studying/doing now the same or completely different from what you wanted to do when you were younger?
OH MY GOD, this is so awesome 😀 It comes really close to what I am doing (I’m now specializing in microbiology). There is just something fascinating about nature and human bodies – I’m never tired of learning new things. I love the picture of that starfish, how intriguing!
That would be such an interesting specialization! 😀 I’m taking my second microbiology course at the moment, and I love it so far. I think it’s so fascinating how so many organisms that we can’t see play such an important role in our lives and our ecosystems.