How I Chose My Career - My Road to School Psychology

At the age of 5 I told my parents "I want to work at McDonalds forever and make lots of money", at age 10 I was certain I would be a Dentist, at 16 I thought I would be a Teacher, and at 17 I was certain I would be a Physical Therapist. Then of course we cannot forget about the years in between where I went back and forth on becoming a Lawyer. What a road, huh?

Here we are at 21, and I am going to graduate school to get my PhD in School Psychology. I can honestly say that I have never been more certain about a decision. Everything about this excites me, and I know it is the career for me. Here I will give a bit of insight into how I got to this point.

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Freshman year I went into undergrad with the major Athletic Training - the goal was to use it as a stepping stone to become a Physical Therapist. I hated it, and since I was so miserable I barely ever did my work.  I'll never forget going into a final that I had not studied for and guessing every single answer. As you can see, this route was not for me - and yeah, I bombed that final.

Soon I changed my major to Human Development and Family Sciences thinking that I would do something family/children related. I had always loved kids. My junior high years were spent volunteering at my church's nursery and during high school I volunteered at the local Children's Services Department.

At the beginning of my sophomore year I decided I was too confused about everything and that I should just make my major Undecided. That semester was where I constantly heard from upperclassmen that "You should decide by sophomore year on your major. You can't go into Junior year Undecided." *rolls eyes* So I continued to take general courses, and hoped that I would come to some decision eventually.

Spring of Sophomore Year. Age 19. - The turning point. I decided to go with Early Childhood Education to become a Teacher (ok so we're almost there, but not there yet). I shadowed an elementary teacher for the semester, and realized that it was absolutely not for me. 

What I loved - being around students all day, spending the day in a school, helping them achieve their goals, encouraging them, interacting with their parents, learning about each child's needs, watching them succeed, learning about the education system, and learning how to improve the education system. And of course I loved hearing all the cute little voices call out to "Miss Deija" if they had a question or concern. They melted my heart every single day. 

What I did not enjoy - teaching. *Lightbulb!* I just needed to find a career where I could do all these things but not actually do the whole teaching lessons and leading a classroom part.

I made the major switch to Early and Middle Childhood Studies since it was more general, and I would still be able to learn about children and education. I did TONS of researching and decided to apply to graduate programs in School Psychology. 

So now here we are! This fall I will be starting my Master's/PhD Program in School Psychology. "The little girl who wanted to work at the McDonald's drive thru as a long term career is going to be a Dr.!?" - one of my parents' favorite lines. As a School Psychologist I will be able to do everything I just listed plus even more. It is my dream job. Also I should mention that psychology courses were my absolute favorite during both high school and undergrad. Deep down inside I think I always knew I was meant to be a Psychologist of some sort. You know you've found your career when you can say "I get to do this!?" instead of "I have to do this." It took quite a while to get to this point, but thankfully I got here.

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I want to leave you with this thought - don't feel discouraged if it's taking you a while to find your purpose and your passion. Everyone doesn't know from the time they come out the womb what they want to do forever. Props to those people, but we aren't all like that. Give it time, and it'll come to you! 

I hope you enjoyed reading.
How long did it take you to find your passion? Let me know in the comments, and have a fabulous day. 

xo, Deija