Okay, so... leaving for college in little more than a month. My major at the moment is Chinese. I have the option of learning either Simplified or Traditional. I want to learn both.
... Actually, there's A LOT of things I want/have to do and learn. There's a Chinese Flagship program at my university that helps you develop professional-level language skills... And it offers lots of opportunities, too. You don't have to have Chinese as your major, but it's a very intense program (Just look:
chineseflagship.uoregon.edu/en…). You have to be at a high level JUST to get into the program. And then, they offer high level classes IN CHINESE. Of course, there's the study abroad, summer programs and all those projects... It's a lot of work. /epic understatement
Am I willing to sacrifice my time for this? My eventual goal is to get into the medical community (as a medical translator, or even if I give up on that in the years to come, as a family doctor or cardiologist). I can't just focus my college years just on Chinese even with it being my major - I have to have high-level biology classes WHILE trying to have fun in college. MY LIFE IS IN SHREDS BEFORE IT EVEN BEGINS. 8DDD I'll be taking chemistry (difficult), physics (same)... and Calculus (kryptonite). Each of these classes are REQUIRED to get into the medical schools I did research on, like OHSU (close to home) and Harvard Medical School. I've read stories about how soul-crushingly hard it is to become a doctor, too...
So right now, I'm just... afraid. I'm looking forward to school - I've always loved school, when I had friends around... But there are lots of decisions I have to make about my future that are difficult to change once they're made. No more mistakes can be made past... freshman year. DX
Btw, if you're wondering how being a doctor fits into becoming a medical translator... It makes sense to be an expert in something you're supposed to translate, right? D: Every medical translating company I looked at have MD's and PhD's at their disposal. Seems to be the only way to be qualified for the job...
I want to be a doctor. I always have been as a very young kid. But I also love learning Chinese... I want to combine them both into a profession that I can live with for the rest of my life... And I want to be exceptional at it. I'll work towards both and see what happens, but I'll be terrified for a while.
Now that I think about it, it's not because of the nature of the interests I want to pursue, but because I have to make sacrifices. Compromises. And I kinda want everything I can at this point in my life, haha... Like a family of my own (eventually), a chance to travel the world... I might have to give these up for a long long while if I pursue a medical career. But at the same time, I do not want to regret not having tried becoming a doctor...
... ;___;