People often speak about their calling, a vocation they know instinctively they were born for. To some, this means pursuing a career as a teacher, a parent, or an artist, whatever it is, they feel deeply in their bones that God put them on this earth to fulfill a certain role. As a child, I was never certain what exactly my role was. I didn’t have aspirations of pursuing a particular career or hobby. I knew that I enjoyed helping people, but I wasn’t sure what that meant for God’s plan for my life. I’ve spent most of my teen years in service to others, especially through my parish.
I’ve participated in volunteer babysitting so that parents could have a night out to enjoy themselves or to accomplish errands without the kids underfoot, I’ve served at soup kitchens, and I’ve assisted other parishioners with yard work and home maintenance. I’ve also served at the local animal shelter by walking the dogs that are kept there. Being able to work with younger students and mentor them during camps has also been incredibly rewarding.
Outside of my parish, at school I use my academic gifts to tutor other students, particularly in math and biology, which are my personal strengths. Acting in service to others in these ways is exceptionally fulfilling to me. I’ve often joked that if I could make a career out of volunteering, I would. I enjoy helping people, and I believe it’s one of my God-given gifts. Other than volunteering professionally, which didn’t seem like a feasible career path, I wasn’t sure how God was calling me to use my gift for service. It wasn’t until a traumatic personal experience that I found my calling.
Three years ago, my family was on vacation at Myrtle Beach. While there, my father and brother were in a boating accident. Emergency room physicians performed a CT scan and discovered that my father has a brain tumor and they diagnosed him with Anaplastic Astrocytoma (Type 3 brain cancer). His prognosis is a life expectancy of ten years or less. This has been devastating to myself and my family, and I’ve been actively researching the use of stem cell replacement as a holistic treatment option.
This research sparked an acute interest in medicine as a career, but that wasn’t solidified as my calling until last year, when my family experienced another traumatic event. Due to the progression of my father’s brain cancer, he suffered a seizure while driving. My father and my siblings crashed into a tree, head-on, and had to be taken by helicopter to the nearest trauma center. Their injuries were catastrophic, and I was terrified that I would lose my family.
I’ve never known fear like that, but the incredible trauma staff, surgeons, nurses, and specialists worked so hard to save my family. They’re still alive today because of those physicians. Seeing what a difference doctors can make and how they assist not only their patients but also their patients’ families was instrumental to my future plans. God bestowed me with gifts in biology and service, and while it took time for me to understand how He wanted me to utilize those gifts, I now know that His plan encompassed pursuing a career in medicine.
Helping others has always been my passion, and helping my family during these hard times has helped me to realize that helping others through medicine is what I have been called to do. I can’t answer yet exactly what that career looks like, whether it’s as a trauma surgeon or in medical research, to help people like my father, but I’ll find out along the way, just like I found out my calling.
