Hometown:
Eugene, OR
My whole life, I told everyone I wanted to be a doctor, mainly because my dad was a doctor. As a kid, I would put on my dad’s scrubs to dress up as a doctor for Halloween. Whenever I received the classic question “So, what do you want to be when you grow up?”, I always responded with “Something in the medical field… I think, honestly, I’m not sure.” I knew I wanted to help people in some way but didn’t know how. Seeing all my career options made me feel overwhelmed and confused. It took a lot to finally decide to study exercise science and pursue graduate school.
Exploration Experience: Talking with my friends about our future jobs made me feel so out of the loop. I felt like they had it all planned out, and I was left in the dust. I had a lot of friends who wanted to go into engineering, even some who wanted to be chemists or astronauts. I didn’t understand how they were so sure of their plans. I felt like I was looking through a dirty window towards my future; I could kind of make out the shape of what I was looking at, but I didn’t know exactly what I was looking at or the path I needed to take to get there. Frankly, it sucked, feeling like I was the only one unsure about what I wanted to do.
I completed my first year of school at BYU and was still uncertain about what I wanted to study. I took mostly general classes and talked to friends and family who are engineers, doctors, dentists, teachers, construction workers, businessmen, marketers, and electricians to see if anything struck a chord for me.
Then I served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chile. As I served, I saw people become happier as they healed spiritually through Christ. Helping in that healing process brought me real purpose and satisfaction.
With the motivation of helping others heal, I researched career options using self-exploration activities to learn about my passions, skills, and interests. I used ChatGPT to learn about and compare careers in healthcare and went straight to the best source: real-life healthcare professionals. I even got to shadow my brother who is now working as an orthodontist in Oregon.
After studying it out, both in my mind and in my heart, I found that people working in medicine are healing people like Christ does, just in a different way, more on the physical than the spiritual side of things. His example helps me strive towards being a Master Healer just as He is.
A couple of my siblings pursued medical careers after studying exercise science at BYU, so that was always what I thought of doing. After making the effort to explore all my options, I now feel confident that exercise science is where I need to be.
Why is Exploring Important to Me? Exploring helped me learn who I am and what I want for my life. It’s easy to sit back in our own little world, being comfortable and never pushing our boundaries. Once I got out of my little world and researched the pre-med majors, explored who I am, shadowed real professionals, and dove into career options, it gave me the surety that I’m on the right path for me. Without exploring majors and career options, I would still be sitting in uncertainty, afraid of what the future holds for me.
Looking Back: I must be honest; in my freshman year, I had no idea how college worked or even that advisors existed. Looking back, I wish I had taken advantage of all the advising services BYU has to offer. Feeling unsure and lost in something important, like college, is terrible. Trust me, I know. I wish I had met with an advisor as a freshman. I now know about the resources BYU has for us to be successful in school, not just to get good jobs but also to pursue our passions.
Favorites:
- Book: The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson
- Movie: How to Train Your Dragon
- Food: Grilled chicken, rice, and veggies. I’m a simple man.
- Animal: Chimpanzee
- Color: Army green
Does Pineapple Belong on Pizza? I can’t complain about it. Pizza is pizza, right?
Boring Facts About Me:
- I’m scuba certified.
- I’ve never been pulled over while driving.
- I have a crack in my spine.
- My favorite place to study in the library is in the cubicles on the 5th floor.
- I’ve never broken a bone.
- I got around 30 stitches next to my eye.
Hobbies:
- Weightlifting
- Hiking
- Baking (mostly treats)
- Eating what I bake