"So you're gonna be a pharmacist?"

Last summer I was sitting in the lobby of McCutcheon waiting to help check in middle school students for a summer camp.  As per usual, the parents of the students will come up and ask all kinds of questions but occasionally one of them will genuinely just want to talk with you.  One mother in particular was asking me about my college career and thus began another rousing game I like to call; “So you’re gonna be a pharmacist?”

You see, the first question people ask you when you’re in college, or when you have just graduated college, is what did you study?  I politely answer Pharmaceutical Sciences.  The reply is always the same, “So you’re gonna be a pharmacist?”  Watching their faces when I politely chuckle and say no is quite funny.  Now, I explain to whoever asks that Pharmaceutical Sciences is the study of drugs and their effects on the body.  Again I’m asked, “So you’re not gonna be a pharmacist?”  Now at Purdue there are two specializations; Industrial and Physical Pharmacy (IPPH) and Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology (MCMP).  My specialization was in IPPH and the best way to explain it in under 20 seconds is as follows;

IPPH – Drugs outside the body (formulation, manufacturing, stability, etc.)
MCMP – Drugs inside the body (pharmacodynamics, toxicology, biology pathways, etc.)

Now my graduate degree will be in Pharmaceutics with an emphasis on Physical Pharmacy.  Basically, it applies physics and chemistry to pharmaceuticals. Overall, what I am going to school for is in the field of pharmacy, just focusing on the discovery and development of medicines (more science, less patient consultation).

Next I get asked two questions automatically (order varies but the questions do not). “So what do you want to do with that degree?” and “So you’re gonna make lots of money?”  The first of which is a reasonable question of which I will explain for those you are actually wondering the same thing since you probably thought that I was going to be a pharmacist.

I aspire to work in the pharmaceutical industry for a company (large or small) working on Research and Development projects for novel drugs.  Eventually, I see myself ending up teaching but I most definitely want some industry experience, plus I want to live somewhere outside the Midwest at some point in my life, and outside of Eli Lilly (Indianapolis) and Abbott (Chicago) most companies do not have large research facilities in the Midwest.

Now that second question makes me cringe.  First, it just feels morally wrong to discuss that with complete strangers.  Second, I am certainly not in this for the money.  Granted I will make good living, but I got into research because it both interested me and allowed me to “change the world.”  Honestly, I would love to work on a project to help aid cancer or cure HIV but at the very least if I can discover one thing that helps improve one person’s quality of life, then it was all worth it.  

Lastly, I get the standard “You must be really smart” comment which is sincere from most people, but sometimes comes off as being a backhanded compliment.  Yes, you have to be smart to work in this field, but a lot of that comes from the passion and interest in the subject material.

Now back to the lady in the lobby.  After explaining all this to her I got asked the most genuine question ever, “Can you cure diabetes for me?”  She then explained that she was just diagnosed with Type II diabetes and that she was scared.  Now, I reassured her that the medicine out there currently along with diet and exercise can make Type II diabetes very livable.  She thanked me for the conversation and went to see her son in his room.  But looking back I really wanted to tell that mother that I could cure diabetes.  If I do become a scientist and have the money/influence to start my own independent project, I will have to consider diabetes as a major priority, based on that conversation alone.  Unfortunately, I believe someone might beat me to it but I will always remember the way she asked in such an authentic way that made me feel that she actually believed I could change the world!

So no, I am NOT gonna be a pharmacist.  But I do want to help people and I will continue to aspire to change the world.  And every person should believe they can change the world…because you can!