Future Planning

As those of you reading this can probably tell, it's getting harder and harder to decide which sites I like the best. Part of the problem is that I still am grappling with what I really would like to do in the future. Internship is supposed to help us narrow down our interests but there are a lot of factors that go into future planning and it just gets difficult weighing all the factors. 

Right now I think my interests are in two areas: either working in a primary care office doing consultation with patients who come to see their pediatrician, or training as a neuropsychologist who does testing with children to measure their IQ, achievement potential, memory, attention, and concentration. A lot of times the patients are kiddos who have had some sort of illness either directly or indirectly affecting the brain. In primary care I could do a lot of prevention and catch kids before they have severe behavior or mental health problems. It is also a slower environment than working in a hospital. Primary care is also the way of the future; the focus is on integrating psychology into everyday health care so I would be right on the edge of what's new and being funded :) 

The problem with neuropsychology is that you have to do a two year postdoc (two years after getting the doctoral degree. Coming off of an extra year of training already the thought of adding MORE training does not excite me very much. In addition, the field of neuropsychology has its OWN match so I would be going through this exact same thing for a third time. Neuropsych also usually carries the most intense amount of work because there are really long reports that need to be written after each evaluation. 

Finally, I'm just tired of moving around and having to establish new sets of support and friendships. I like meeting new people and have been able to meet some incredible people everywhere I've lived but it's just a lot of work. Anyway, I just wanted to give an idea of my thought process through all of this. Having the degree is great but it opens up SO many choices that it can be tough to find the area you love. And of course there's always that tiny part of you that says, "is this REALLY what I want to be doing?" After 9 years of schooling that's a tough thought to have!