when/how did you decide to pursue pharmacy?

[aubieRx]

Now, I know there are some die-hard pharmacy fans ut there who will probably turn their noses down at a thread such as this.

However, you must keep in mind that not all of us started life/college knowing what we should do for a living. The following is my story (more or less). I would be interested in hearing other stories! I feel as though I can't be the only one with my background.

I agonized over the choices for countless hours throughout college. For awhile I was certain I should major in english. Then it was biology. Then I was certain I should focus on becoming a vet. I always had an interest in the life sciences so my choices were not completely random (my interest in english was due entirely to my natural aptitude for the subject...however I worried about job security )

I trace my interest in pharmacy to sophomore year. I thought "gee pharmacy programs sound like they are quite sensible".

Fast foward time: I somehow bounced from one large and insane football crazed university to a community college to another large and insane football crazed university. Except this university happened to have a pharmacy school on campus.

That was when I decided to pursue the pre-pharm curriculum and abandon my path towards vet school (even though there is also a vet school here).

I cannot help but feeling that a bit of fate stepped in to place me where I am now. Kudos to those who have never had any doubts but I am one of those flighty people! I wanted a steady job with good pay and not too much stress that involved the life sciences and I think I got it!

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[TrojanAnteater]

for me it was at career day sr. year of HS. I signed up for the Pharmacist, Physician, Dentist talk. The pharmacist was our family pharmacist, who I didn't know well at that time because I never went to the pharmacy. Up to that point, I had wanted to be a Dentist as a kid, then in HS started thinking seriously about career paths and was pondering optometry. Both of those got old, and the career day planted a new seed. I went into college keeping pharmacy in mind, but I didn't really aim at taking the specific pre-pharm classes (I was undecided my first year, made my major chemistry my 2nd year, and added biology my 3rd). Around the end of year 2 I think I was pretty much set on pharmacy, after talking more to our pharmacist and learning about the profession.

 

[ultracet]

when med school fell through.....


















ok so i couldn't help that....

when i was a kid i wanted to be a
karate-band marcher-airplane piolet(sp)-pharmacist

never a spelling bee champ though....

so here i am

 

[crazyrice610]

I first thought about being a pharmacist during my soph year in high school when we had to do a career plan. But slowly I stopped thinking about that path and went into college as undeclared.

After a few quarters at the university I realized that I want to declare a Chemistry major (but not knowing what exactly I wanted to do) until I met my aunt's friend, who owns a pharmacy. And that was the end of the story.

 

[Mr_Ritim]

Started out as a CSE major freshman year in college. To this day I still remain interested over computers yet I knew it wasn't something I would be happy with for the rest of my life. To reach a goal such becoming a pharmacist is allowing me to take a bigger step in life and try to prove myself that I can accomplish something I would never of thought being.

I guess it all started when I followed my friend into the biology field, going into the first day of class of General Biology finally sparked interest in me. From that point on I had always try to relate what I learn in class to real life.

Also working at the pharmacy with a awesome pharmacist got me to be even more interested than ever. He finished all of his pharmacy studies when he was 20, and he told me that the school said it was too early for him to work as a pharmacist at such a young age, so he had to stay an extra year in school until he was 21 to begin working.

Now and days floating pharmacist are just in it for the money, they could care less about a patients problem. They come in, do what they're suppose to do get out and get paid. But Im glad I started in the pharmacy with someone who was profoundly dedicated to the profession. After countless months of working with him b4 he had left the store to pursue another location I wanted to follow his footsteps.

 

[mystiqx]

At first i wanted to be a pediatrician, then it turned to oncology i had lost my granma to cancer three years after I came here to live,she had also lost her sisters and mother to cancer as well. I left community college and went to the top state school in NY for science and research, after doing a research program with them for a summer. Unfortunately i had a really hard time ajusting, my grades were an embarassment. My grandmother's cancer had relapsed, she fell into a coma during finials week and the day after the last day of school she died. I switched into this program called Health Science, which basically covered some areas of clinical and non-clinical heath care, i decided to concentrate in Public health Education (i pretty much gave up on science), they also had a pharmacy tech program that they were rolling out, and the pharmacist who came to give a talk about the field was VERY uninteresting, she made it sound like there were no jobs in pharmacy, no jobs for pharmacy techs, and the only thing you could do was work at Rite Aid and Duane Reade. So obviously i didn't pick that, who would?
SO i graduated with my "useless degree" and i took a job at a cancer hospital in new york, i guess helping these people, gives me a chance to do something that i wasn't able to do for my grandmother (she died before i could tell her goodbye, and i still have guilt about it to this day, May 18th would be 3 years she is gone) Anyway, i had a friend at work suggest pharmacy to me, her mom is pharmacist at the hospital i work at so i got to talk to her and really got a completely different outlook of pharmacy, and then i researched the field, and then kicked myself for not doing the B.S pharm tech program.

I started working in the chemo unit at my job and my interest was sparked even more with the drugs and learning everything i can about them, and being able to see first hand how they are administered, how the patients react to them, some are fine, some their cancers progress, some get really sick while they are being infused.
So now i'm finishing my first year of pre-reqs, its a stuggle, since i work fulltime in a "grown up job" but i'm trying to hang in there.

Anyway thats my story
~M

 

[Corradoracer]

i always thought of a career in pharmacy, just never had the balls to do it until one day i talked to a pharmacist that pushed me over the edge

 

[pharmadocious]

It took me a long time to figure out that pharmacy was for me. It actually took me a long time to figure out that I enjoyed learning. After barely passing high school (GPA 1.6) I figured school wasn't the path I wanted to take so I became a supervisor at a chain resturaunt. It was there that I found that I really enjoyed working with the public. I was offered the position to become a GM at a slower store in town at age 19. I initially took the offer and perhaps a bit of fate stepped in when I was robbed 3 times in 2 months. Taking the hint, I stepped away from that occupation. Next was apartment maintenance. Needless to say I found that clearing hair plugs out of strangers sinks and showers wasn't all that fulfilling. I ended up applying to a help wanted ad in the newspaper for a pharm tech position and was offered the job. After a couple of months on the job I started to take interest in the pharmacy field and pretty much every pharmacist I came in contact with encouraged me to take the leap and start my pre-pharm courses....however, at that time my confidence in my academic capabilities was (the whole 1.6....thing). Anyway, I worked as a pharm-tech for 2 years and didn't pursue any pre-pharm studies.

I moved out to Phoenix, started fresh and decided that I was actually going to push myself and be the best I could be (I think I've seen to many army commercials). My initial classes were a struggle. I basically had no education behind me. I started in elementary algebra and really had no "study skills" so, taking the first step on this long journey, I finally cracked open a foreign object called a text book and started making the effort to learn . I was shocked when I realized that learning came natural. Not really too sure about pursuing pharmacy, I first decided engineering sounded interesting....boy was I wrong. I thought I was hot **** for breezing through elementary algebra and thought I was Good Will Hunting...that is until I found out math was my achilles heel . My pharmacist friends finally convinced me to lean towards pharmacy and I have never looked back. After convincing my Gen Chem1 instructor to let me bypass intro chemistry (never took it in high school) I started to really enjoy it and chem soon became my niche.

Pharmacy is definitely the place for me because it allows me to couple science and patient care...not to mention the endless oppurtunities within the pharmacy occupation.

An amazing transformation occurs when someone sets forth the effort to reach thier potential and realizes that thier potential is always just a little out of thier grasp and no matter how hard they try...well.... there never really is a limit. Everyone creates thier own reality, consciously or otherwise. Sounds like there's a message in there somewhere