Early last Fall, we rode over to Hickory with our buddy Mike Stuart. We were all chatting like mad, as we usually do with friends we need to catch up with, and the conversation got around to former students and what they are doing now. At one point, Mike opined that if he were starting over today, he would go into infectious diseases as a Ph.D. doctor. We talked about that for awhile, and considered Andrea as a candidate.
Then another of our instructors, John Bernhardt, jumped in as our next topic. "You know what John is doing? He has enrolled at ABTech to become a nurse. He wants to join 'Doctors Without Borders'," Mike said.
Now this particular career choice should surprise no one, as John taught (among other things) Anatomy and Physiology at UNCA. Except that John had recently retired from a long and hopefully rewarding career as a teacher. And here he was going into nursing!
We were impressed, and started to look into various medical professions. I had always thought Andrea would make a great anesthesiologist by virtue of her intelligence and temperament. Maybe she could become a Nurse-Anethesiologist? It pays lots of money--up to hundreds of thousands per year--and she could get there in, say, four years. Andrea drove down to UNCA to check our ideas out, and came back with lots of information about their "capstone" program. She would get lots of credit for the work she has already done in Biology, so that makes this choice particularly attractive. To make a long story short, we have taken the requisite tests and enrolled at ABTech. My first choice is Sonography; hers is to become an RN, a platform she can use to advance and specialize in any number of disciplines.
Getting into the programs is no easy task. It takes a combination of extremely high test scores, volunteer work, past school credit, work experience, and prior licensing and certifications. Maybe we'll get in, and maybe we won't; it'll be tight in any case.
But . . . if we do, it means some big changes for us. We'd have to give up our apartment here in Bregenz, and probably our web management and translation business, too. We'd be back in school for two or more years, starting this summer and concluding whenever we are satisfied that we have attained our own personal goals. We'll probably "travel" for awhile. That means we'd sign up with one of several services that send you wherever you choose to go to fulfill a 13 week contract. The pay is excellent and you are provided free housing. Sounds like fun to us: Summer in Aspen, Winter in St. Croix or the Keys, Fall in Asheville, and who knows where and when. Maybe we will love it, and maybe we will quickly tire of it. But we're going to give it a go.
Besides, being back in school is very appealing to both of us. It's not like we have to go through a couple of years of drudgery to get what we want. The school itself makes it all worthwhile. We think it will be time well spent.
What do you think? E-mail us and let us know.
January 26th, 2002