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!
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