<p>I'm an 18 year old girl who's going to be a college freshman in the fall. For a long time I've known that I wanted a career that has something to do with science, specifically biology. Now I've narrowed it down to either doing genetic research with a university, or going to med school and becoming a doctor. (A clinical pathologist, so I can diagnose patients through their case history but also have a research project going at the same time.)</p>
<p>HOWEVER. My parents keep asking me if I'm "passionate enough" about science to really do either of these things, and this is getting on my nerves and making me doubt myself. I honestly don't know if I am passionate about science or not. Based on the following things, does it seem like either of the jobs I described would be a good fit for me?</p>
<p>Pro:</p>
<p>-I'm a very curious and creative person
-I got good grades in science classes in high school, including AP Biology
-I volunteered at a lab this past summer and got some experience with what actually goes on in science
-When I volunteered, I was (most of the time) interested and eager to do new things
-I get excited when I hear about something complicated and it finally just "clicks" in my head and I understand it
-I am genuinely interested in medicine and how the human body works
-Someday I want to discover something that no one has ever seen before</p>
<p>Con:</p>
<p>-I don't spend very much of my free time actually reading about and learning about science. I guess I just keep finding other things to do.
-I have a conflicting interest - I like to write fiction stories - that sometimes distracts me
-I find official scientific journal articles too complicated and boring
-I feel super embarrassed and stupid every time I make a mistake when volunteering at the lab. Even though it's okay for me to make mistakes because I'm still so new
-I'm a shy / introverted person who doesn't like public speaking
-Sometimes, when people ask me what I want to do as a career, I feel almost like an imposter when I tell them. I feel like I'm being "fake" for some reason (???)
-I like biology, but I don't really like chemistry. This is bad, because chem is a huge part of both of my possible choices. </p>
<hr>
<p>So what do you think? I definitely like science, but does it sound like I would "make it" as either a researcher or a pathologist?</p>
<p>It’s okay not to spend your free time reading scientific literature, and it’s definitely okay to have outside interests. You don’t have to live and breathe biology to want to pursue it in college and as a career. You probably find scientific articles complicated and boring because (1) you don’t have the background to really understand them and (2) most are complicated and boring. </p>
<p>Everyone makes mistakes in lab, even people who have PhDs. You’re human, and you’ve barely graduated high school. If you’re serious about pursuing research, be prepared to feel stupid and inadequate. There will always be more to learn and you’re not going to be perfect all the time, but that’s the job. You are trying to answer questions that no one knows the answer to yet, and that can be exciting in and of itself.</p>
<p>You’ll use public speaking in any career, not just science. You’ll figure out a system that works for you.</p>
<p>You probably feel like an imposter because you don’t really know what it’s like to do either of the careers you’re interested in. And that’s okay. You just graduated high school. Explore different career paths, volunteer in labs, get clinical experience, try out different things. You’ll become more confident the more you know and the more comfortable you get with things. Work hard, learn what you can, and give it time.</p>
<p>And here’s a dirty little secret: most biologists don’t like chemistry. If they loved it, they’d be doing chemistry.</p>
<p>You’re fine. Being passionate about something doesn’t mean it has to encompass you’re entire life. It just means that you are excited about it, and you want to do it. Go to college and try things out. The more you do, the more you’ll narrow in on what you really like and what you really don’t.</p>
<p>You sound fine to me. You’ll be a college freshman, you’ll find out whether you like the bigger leagues and want to major. You have time. But, ease up on the introspection. You’re a newbie, your feet are barely wet, what’s all this turmoil? You haven’t even started. Explore and have fun. One step at a time.</p>
<p>You have plenty of time to develop your interests and your brain is still in development. With that said, your choices and viewpoints on science and other ideas can change as you go through college. I would recommend taking a variety of classes including some science courses such as introductory chemistry (General chemistry) or first semester biology to get a feel of what these include. If you find yourself always interested in the lecture and what the professor has to say, as well as finding the material exciting, complex, and ultimately bringing other questions about how science works into your mind, I would use this as an indication of your interests in the sciences</p>
<p>Aurora, my son who starts college in a month isn’t exactly the passionate type. He says he is interested in writing, but I would sometimes get on him about seeing a bit more passion. I have since stopped. But I just saw a review of one of his teachers which a student downgraded the prof because she made them write a paper in an intro to psych class while profs others didn’t. So my sons says “that’s ok, I want to write papers.” All I could think was fine, at least I heard something. Just put up with your parents and you will figure it out when you get to college.</p>
<p>Think it this way:</p>
<p>There are two major “paths” in the human life, the “work life” and the “leisure life”. Most people share these two, some are about strictly just one (e.g. artists and workaholics). Most people get occasionally bored of fed up with things and then they switch to doing other things that they find more interesting. Life is a complex thing and there’s A LOT of stuff to see and think, so don’t think that there’s a certain path that you should take, there isn’t, there are loads of things. Think also that there may be a good “balance”, if you can build a life, where you have a combination of interesting things that balance each other. E.g. you can be a scientist and a writer: when you get tired in doing your scientific work, you go for writing, when get tired to writing, you go for your scientific work.</p>
<p>Science is not about reading research papers (unless you have a reason to do so), it’s about making a case about something. It’s about having a reason to believe and find out about something that you consider to be important or necessary. For engineers, applied scientists and practitioners of scientific knowledge science is a reason to know how to solve and understand an unknown practical problem, i.e. it’s motivated by “not knowing what the hell is happening or what should be done to get a certain result”. For pure scientists science is a reason to explain an unknown phenomenon or to introduce new concepts that extend the boundaries of existing knowledge.</p>