Epiphany

It took me years to figure out what I wanted to be when I grow up. Honestly, I still don 't know and don 't ever plan to. Mostly because I cannot imagine becoming a true adult. I’d have to do adult things like returning a sweater I didn 't like or gardening. Gardening: to spend hours upon hours toiling in fields for plants that won’t live to see spring! Or worse imagine me cooking, forbid it that I should ever enjoy cooking! Half the time I mess up boiling water and make macaroni only from a microwave. I 'm still afraid of librarians and speaking to strangers. I intend to use Mickey Mouse band-aids, color with crayons and eat Lucky Charms until the day I 'm cold in my grave. I could never be a good adult.

Epiphanies are, in a sense, turns on the road of life. Once one person has an epiphany, their path changes drastically. The new course may have better scenery than the last, smoother pavement, an easier route, or even a more enjoyable drive, but no matter what new path the person travels, their destination is always different.

Currently, I am working for Home Life, which is a non-profit organization that assists people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I am also conducting research at OSU on cartilage cryopreservation. After an arduous, yet enjoyable journey, I hope to travel to developing nations and assist those that are unfortunate, by providing knowledge regarding health and medical practices. Working hard in school and excelling in everything I pursue ties in with my long-term goal of becoming a doctor. This is due to the fact that attaining such a career requires self-determination, strength during times of agony, and resilience as well as reflection from every failure. Personally, preventing diseases and spreading awareness medically would be profoundly illuminating.

“How can I know what I want to do when I grow up at this age?” I wondered. It seemed ludicrous to have such a question in fourth grade, but we had it, and my time was running out. I felt nervous, angry, and joyous at

I’m a high school senior from a small town in Central Washington. Since I was thirteen years old, I’ve known exactly what I want to do “when I grew up”: I want to become a professor of linguistics at a major research university. I want to research and write papers and teach. Because I have had this answer ready for so long, people started to ask me what I want to specialize in. I’d say that I wasn’t sure, but perhaps an indigenous language family in Central America, because I already spoke Spanish and had studied the culture and politics of the region. Then it struck me: what has made me who I am does not have to be what I become.

What do you want to be when you grow up? When I was four, I wanted to be a princess, like Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty; except, without the evil step-family and the vengeful evil queen hunting me. I wanted the pretty dress; and let’s be honest, I wanted the handsome prince. By the time I was nine, I was convinced I would be country star. I wanted to be the best of the best, and stardom seemed like the way to do it. With Taylor Swift as my idol there was no way my plan could go awry. Thirteen hit me and I decided I was too grown up for such childish desires, and my plans changed to becoming a neurosurgeon. Today, if you were to ask me who I want to be when I grow up, my reply would be that I have no clue. I can only tell you three things I want to do; the same three things I have to do. I have to remain hopeful, become the best version of me that I can possibly be, and most importantly, I have to pursue my dreams. These are my responsibilities to America.

Ever since kindergarten, one is asked, “what do you want to be when you grow up”? When younger, the answers vary from princess to astronaut, and it is more of an amusing thought than a serious question. On the other hand, as one ages, the question becomes tougher to answer and the answers more realistic. In addition, the question is no longer just “what do you want to be”, but “how do you plan to get there”? It took me awhile for me to truly know what my future aspiration would be, because in a world with so many possibilities it was difficult to determine the career I most desired. Ultimately after much thought, I have decided that my future aspiration is to become a registered dietician.

Over the years I have changed careers so many times: a vet, a violinist, an audiologist, an astronaut, a biomedical engineer, and a dancer, but none seem to stick more than the desire to help people. Throughout life I have volunteered at many events. In the past help plant trees, create relief kits, job shadow at hospitals, and help kids go back to school by participating in a program call “Back 2 School” that gives out free backpacks, school supplies, haircuts and more. I think being in a medical career will be good for me. I always like to help people since I was a wee girl and this seems to be a good career for me. Emergency medicine will allow me the chance to provide and take of my family, and be happy with my career

James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young man illustrates the Stephen Dedalus’ complete inner transformation as he searches to find and understand his life’s purpose. Although Stephen reaches minor points of clarity throughout the novel, these experiences serve as ‘false’ epiphanies that provide Stephen with wisdom not to live by. Although some may view these earlier moments as seemingly insignificant, we can better understand how those moments interact and demonstrate a development to a moment of beauty through the works of Aristotle and Plato. Aristotle and Plato help explain how these false epiphanies enable Stephen to narrow-down his understanding of himself and subsequently express it through art. Under Aristotle’s definition of an epiphany in “What is an Epiphany,” Stephen’s journey to self-awareness fulfills the criteria essential in order for a character to reach an epiphany. Furthermore, in Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates’ explains true beauty: what it is, how to obtain it, and how it interacts with one’s ability to understand “which is true and good.” The juxtaposition of Stephen’s story with Socrates’ ideals in Phaedrus demonstrates that Stephen’s early ‘false’ epiphanies and inner turmoil build upon each other to produce a divinely-given “magic moment” (Joyce, 67). Until Stephen encounters true beauty, he experiences difficulty in expressing his thoughts and perspective to the world. However, once he discovers his ability to use art as a form of

My interest in medicine began as a childhood passion for science. In medical school, I was initially drawn to Neurology as I found the nervous system particularly fascinating, but quickly learned that I desired something more hands-on. I then thought Emergency Medicine would be well-suited to my desire for a procedural specialty involved in high-acuity critical care, but continued to have an unsettling feeling that something was lacking.

I took my goal of being a doctor and harnessed it into one increasingly filled with passion. Classes like AP Biology and Anatomy became indescribably engrossing and progressively applicable to my future career. Today, I still aim to be able to care for patients the way I was cared for during my illness. Along with this, I am not restricting myself to only this pathway. I did not have to look too far to see the multitude of calamities affecting our world today--terrorism, shootings, epidemics, corruption, poverty. The list seemed never-ending, but I decided that I had to do something. If I waited for the “perfect moment”, it would never

‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ This is a question that, as children, we heard again

To this day, I still do not understand how I could be so small minded. I wouldn’t even think about the rest of the world outside of Scotland or about the 7.125 billion other people living on earth. Every single one of them lived the same day that I did in a completely different way however that fact would never cross my mind. As humans, it is natural for us to imagine outside of our own little worlds and intend to explore outside of them and as curious as we are, the tiniest epiphany can completely change our own state of mind in which we think in. It can make us re-evaluate our lives or our current perspectives on certain issues, however not all epiphanies are pleasant ones. They may have effects of over thinking, causing the average human

Now, stranded in middle school and the beginning of high school, I was without a particular long term goal or dream that I wished to achieve. During this period of time, I never knew how to answer the common question, “What do you want to do when you grow up?”, and started to reply with “I want to be a hippie in the mountains, raising goats, and selling goat cheese” just so people would stop asking.

On many occasions my personal goals have come before my professional aspirations. A career in the medical field has always been something I have looked forward to. As a child I wanted and dreamed of being a doctor, however due to the choices I made in life and the priorities that I had not thought of, I have come to realize that my childhood dream may not come true. Yet, I was able to compromise and make short and long term goals that will lead me into a career in the medical field. My long term goal is to enter the medical field world and be a respected contributor to it. I want to be able to help others in the time of need. In