My First Episode Of Grey's Anatomy

I have been a Catholic school student since preschool. My daycare was Catholic. My elementary school was Catholic. My high school is Catholic. My college will probably be Catholic as well. Regardless, the idea of discernment and vocation are probably more common topics at our family’s dinner table than most. My grandfather, being the proud man that he is, reached out to the president of Fordham University and shared my interest. He promptly got a reply that said, “I hope your granddaughter listens to God as she discerns her college decisions.” This was the first time that discernment was used in a context that wasn’t necessarily leading to marriage or holy life. I realized that my vocation is where I will be one day and what I will become,
professionally and personally.
Growing up in a household where everyone went to college, I was expected to be on that track as well. From a young age, I remember my grandparents taking me to Notre Dame’s campus and showing me the outside of the dorms. “That could be your room one day,” my grandfather would say as he held me up to better see the dorm building. Looking back now, I wonder what they hoped I would be one day. A doctor? An entrepreneur? Another lawyer?
Throughout middle school, I had a gut feeling that the answer would be a journalist, specifically one that interacted with celebrities on the red carpet and made appearances on E! News. In high school, my love for writing persisted, but I knew in the back of my mind that I couldn’t do it professionally. My heart wasn’t fully in it anymore. Something was consuming my mind, but I didn’t know what. I liked math only because I was good at it. I liked history, but I could never focus enough to be a historian. I liked English, but, again, my heart wasn’t fully in it anymore. I liked science, but I was trying to convince myself that I couldn’t.
I soon feel to peer pressure and watched my first episode of Grey’s Anatomy.
Everyone was watching it, so I needed to see what the hype was about. I got hooked. The fast paced, drama filled show captured my attention, but the scenes that resonated the most were the ones showing the various research projects shown by the attendings. They would take something unknown and turn it into a major medical method. Yes, Grey’s Anatomy is fictional, but the idea of looking into the unknown and using that knowledge to change the world never left my mind. I knew that God spoke to us in weird ways, but I didn’t expect Him to speak to me through Grey’s
Anatomy.
I once wanted to develop treatment changing drugs for cancer or Alzheimer’s. The chemical properties of medications and the human body enamored me to no end. I would read the labels of cough syrup to see what the common factor between each brand was. However, I felt some disconnect. I was told by my chemistry teacher and some friends that chemists spend a lot of time alone. Initially, I thought that was great! But I do enjoy interacting and sharing my knowledge as I go. I like bouncing ideas off other people and taking comments on how I can improve. Within, I knew that my calling wasn’t to be a chemist, sitting in a solitary lab and mixing different chemicals.
I felt confused at the end of my junior year. If I wasn’t meant to be a chemist, what was I meant to be? I then met a professor at the University of Michigan. She showed me images of the brain and asked me to guess what this blob in the middle was and what it caused. I guessed it was a tumor, not knowing what else it could be, but I didn’t know what it caused. She said that she didn’t know initially, either. The tumor actually caused an imbalance of hormones in the patient. Those images still sit in my mind as I think about my calling. In that 15-minute interaction, I felt something click in my mind and my heart. I was exposed to something that allowed me to learn about the human body and its chemicals and to share my knowledge with others. Right now, I am excited for life to continue past West Catholic.
I am excited to see what the world holds for me. Will I still live in Michigan? Will I live in Chicago? Will I live in New York City? Will I be a professor at a university? Will I be a neurologist? Will I be a writer? The unknowns in life and learning about those unknowns are what keep me excited.
I believe my vocation right now is to be a student. There is so much to learn in this world, and I aim to delve into it as much as I can. I also believe my vocation is to enter research to find the answers to the unknown. My heart is desiring to find the answers to questions that have existed for years. The brain is probably the most complex organ we have, thus creating so many unanswered questions. Is there a cure for Alzheimer’s? How can hormones be used to better memorize materials? I believe that my calling in life is to seek these answers. Will I find them? I guess we’ll find
out!
My mind was made to learn and to share my knowledge. God is directing me to make a difference in the world. And as for relationship wise, single or married, or a call to the holy life, I don’t know. I feel that God will present that vocation to me later in life. When I feel connected to a goal and motivated to reach it, I tend to get distracted from other things that people are trying to tell me, especially taking time to listen for the rest of God’s message to me. Hopefully in time, God will present the rest of his calling for me, but like I once said, God reveals himself to us in the strangest of ways.