Moi! :.)
Back in the day, after two aimless years of postsecondary and a year off for good measure, my older brother gave me the idea that I should become a nurse. It was easy for him to come to such a conclusion – after all, I’d been helping nurse our dad’s ever-worsening rheumatoid arthritis since late high school. What neither of us knew were the consequences that would come from the failed pre-nursing biology course and the high marks that I got in the introduction to the history of science and the history of Chinese medicine courses that I took that year. Suddenly I had a reason for schooling and a reason to wake up each morning with a grin on my face. Although my average was extremely low from my first few years of university, I managed to bring up my average to a passing grade (yes, I was just that unproductive before I knew about the history of science and medicine.)
Next, becoming multilingual became meaningful – as one must pick a region of the world to focus their studies on, and primary sources aren’t often in English in non-English-speaking parts of the world. Admittedly I’ve had trouble with this in the past, failing both French and Spanish due to the fear of screwing up in front of lots of people, but to conquer my fear I’ve been learning hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ (a Coastal Salish language) at the Musqueam reserve, and succeeding. It’s probably not a language that I’ll use in the future, as I’m more fascinated with “The East” than “The West,” but what’s better than learning a language in the environment where it’s most used? Perhaps I’ll go teach English in China for a year or two before entering grad-school to learn Mandarin.
All work posted on this blog is mine – if you steal it, not only is it illegal and plagiarism, but professors tend to be ninjas when it comes to work posted on blogs and you’ll probably get caught. This work is copyright © Sarah Keller 2010-2012.