My Pleasant Nightmare by April

My Pleasant Nightmare by April - August 2014 Scholarship Essay

Obtaining a college education is crucial in today’s world and many people will say that it is not needed because they already have a job. The important thing to remember is that the world is always changing, rules and policies change within companies, and that means the level of education their employees need change with time. There are however some work environments that have always required employees to have some level of higher education, like health care. This is the field I am pursing and along the way I have experienced many failures that have made my educational journey difficult, but have also made me a stronger person.

My career planning goals started when I was just in elementary school. I have always been intrigued by the ancient Egyptians and when I did a report on them in the fifth grade, I developed an interest in radiography. I learned that scientists were using x-rays to look inside sarcophagi to investigate the mummy’s genders, reasons for death, etc. From the beginning of sophomore year in high school, I knew I wanted to be a radiologic technologist. I researched what this career was like and the amount of education I needed, and I was convinced this was the career for me. Being the self motivating and ambitious individual that I am, I went online and looked up prerequisite courses needed for radiologic technology programs that were near me. From there, I went ahead and took as many college credit courses at my high school that were prerequisite courses to get me a head start on my college education for radiology.

Right out of high school, at the age of 17, I moved to Boise from Garden Valley, Idaho and I attended the university of my choice which offered radiology. I attended school full time while working part time, meeting with my advisor a couple of times a year to ensure I was on track with everything. At the end of fall semester 2011, I signed up for the rest of my prerequisite courses for spring and applied for the radiology program in February 2012. On my first attempt to get into this program, I was unsuccessful. I then continued spring semester which meant that all of my prerequisite courses would be completed. However, upon completion of spring semester of my first year, I was told the curriculum changed and I needed to take two more courses to complete all of the prerequisite courses, which I ended up taking that summer. My second year of college, I just took a couple of courses that would make my application look a little better. When spring semester of 2012 came around, I applied to the program, once more. This time, I still did not get in. What could I be doing wrong?

At this point in my educational experience, I was about to just give up. Nothing I did seemed to be good enough. Due to my displeasure with my luck at getting into a radiology program, I looked into other schools within Idaho and in near by states. For fall 2013 semester, I took some random courses that would allow me to apply to several different schools. I also decided to get certified as a nursing assistant hoping to gain some needed medical experience. After fall semester, I obtained my certification as a c.n.a. and got a job in a memory care unit working with Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. Once spring 2014 came around, I applied to the same program for the third try, and to my displeasure, I did not get in! I applied to four other programs in Idaho and out of state hoping to get in somewhere.

The only luck I had was with a school in Washington, where I applied to their nuclear medicine program, because that is my ultimate educational goal. I was not accepted to this program, but was rather put on a waiting list. My doubts were high and essentially told myself that this career field obviously isn’t for me. I explored other career paths, mainly nursing. As I began to research what to do next, I received a letter from Bellevue College in Washington from the program director for the nuclear medicine program. I had just been informed that I was accepted into her program. This was one of the happiest moments in my life and I can say that I actually screamed and began shaking when I read this letter! I immediately called my parents to tell them the good news and I paid my $250 out of pocket as a deposit to hold my spot in the program.

My educational experience, in my eyes, has been nothing but a pleasant nightmare. I have tried many times to get into a program and no one wanted me. Once I finally got accepted to Bellevue College, I now know that getting into an actual radiology program would have been a mistake. Nuclear medicine is where my interest lies and I am so glad I got put down so many times in order to learn that this is where I was meant to be. My educational path has been difficult, frustrating, leading me to tears of anger occasionally, but it only has made me a stronger person with more passion for my education than I have had ever before.