I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that I was good at my job. I don’t know if it was just having a lot of experience or what, but I was fairly good. I wouldn’t say I was the best (especially in recent months) but I was good.

Every time we got a new pharmacy student in I would be asked “Why didn’t you go to pharmacy school? You would make a great pharmacist.” My answer would vary between “I’m not that stupid” and “I’m not that crazy.”

I considered it. I even switched majors. I went from history to biology. I figured if I had a bio degree not only would it make getting into pharmacy school easier, I would have something to fall back on if I didn’t get in, or hated it. (See, I was already preparing to not like it!)

Here was my thought process:

• Ooooh, pharmacists make a lot of money
• Dang 6 figures starting out for adding that to what I do already???
• Everyone keeps telling me that I would make a great pharmacist
• Seriously, they make that much money?
• They all really hate their jobs, but that’s a lot of money

Then I snapped out of it. Unfortunately this was after some failed classes. I failed a calculus class and when I retook it I got a D. Then I failed an organic chemistry class. When I re enrolled in the OChem class I realized I wasn’t going to do well and dropped it. (Or so I thought. It turns out it wasn’t dropped from the system, so there is an extra F on my transcript for that. I’ve looked everywhere for the paper to prove I dropped it, but no such luck.)

Through all of this I was working in a pharmacy and knew that the pharmacists all hated their jobs and I hated mine, but still I was putting myself through this.

Quick side bar please, a few things I (and most others) hate about pharmacy

• dealing with the public
• Early refills
• fake prescriptions
• INSURANCE REJECTS!!!!!
• fuckheads that act like we are the McDonalds drive through
• the phrase “All you have to do is throw some pills in a bottle”
• people who try to make you go faster (You tell someone 15 minutes and they say “How about 10?” -My typical response is “I negotiate upwards, it can be 20 if you like”)
• Dealing with office managers, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, doctors, insurance companies, etc.

Resuming post now.

I was seriously wavering on the whole plan (admittedly, with 2 Fs and a D, getting into pharmacy school at UH would have been very difficult to swing) then it was taken out of my hands. Hushbear (who I guess was just Hushboyfriendbear then) lost his job. I had to go back to work full time while he started his company.

It turned out to be a good thing for us. Hushbear (and the rest of the AL guys) have built a wonderful company. Even with all of the stress Hushbear loves his job, and it’s been good for him. I stopped going to school and just worked full time. Working with two separate crazy-ass pharmacists (at two different companies) convinced me once and for all that I didn’t want to work in pharmacy for the rest of my life, and certainly not as a tech. Their assholeness (yes that’s a new word) motivated me to return to school as soon as I could.

I didn’t really know what I wanted to do when I returned, so I just took some liberal arts classes. By chance my first semester back I took a history course from Dr. S and knew I should have stuck with history all along. I remembered how excited I had been in my high school history classes with Mr. Tumlinson. When we covered the French Revolution I knew without a doubt that I needed to go back into history and would probably want to focus specifically on the FR.

That same semester I also happened to take a cultural psychology course taught by an amazing grad student and found my minor. She was focused on I/O (employment stuff), but the way she taught the class sparked something in me.

I’ve been reading some pharmacy blogs (in between running around Sydney and studying) that I used to love because I could relate to them. Now I find them funny, but really they just make me more certain in my choice. So yes, pharmacy interns, I did consider going to pharmacy school, but I’m not that stupid.