Audrey Cooper says "It feels good to be lost in the right direction."

Getting “lost” in Colorado is so incredibly easy to do. I’m not talking about just getting lost on the countless hikes or one way streets in downtown Denver, but also getting lost mentally, which is the one kind of “lost” I can actually appreciate. I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I “grow up” (a genetic counselor), where I might end up going to grad school (Madison-Wisconsin), and ultimately where I would end up living for the rest of my life (Iowa!). Then Wartburg West and Colorado happened. I now am not sure I know exactly what I want to do with my life, and maybe I don’t want to stay as close to home as possible for future schooling or to live the rest of my life. However, as “lost” as I may feel at times, I still know that this state, and Wartburg West, is helping me move in the right direction.

My internship Wartburg West found for me is at St. Luke’s Presbyterian Hospital in the Health One Center for Maternal and Fetal Health. (It’s close enough to the apartments that I get to bike to work every day, which is another awesome experience that I do not want to ignore!) I am interning under a genetic counselor named Cathy Burson, and she and the other three ladies in the office have been incredible to me! Throughout my internship they have given me not only the opportunity to shadow Cathy and see the day in a life of a genetic counselor, but I have also been exposed to what a day of a patient coordinator might look like, multiple surgeries, watching neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurses and doctors in action, ultrasound technicians showing families pictures of their unborn babies, being involved in weekly meetings, and working on projects that will be used to help enhance patient care. They have also put me in contact with other genetic counselors around the Denver area and I have had opportunities to meet and shadow them as well! At the end of the day, “working” here doesn’t really feel like work at all!

So maybe it is now obvious why knowing what I want to do when I grow up is not so clear to me anymore. I have been so lucky to have had the exposure to so many different, awesome practices in the medical field that I just feel like I want to do them all! However as I said before, I feel so blessed to have had this exposure now so that this experience can help me decide what I want to do with my future. Lost? Yes. In the right direction? Most certainly!