From Wedding Planner to Cell Biology Research I ended up exactly where I need to be

My journey to college began in 2005 when I was 18 years old, with aspirations to own my own business as a wedding planner. LSU was my life long dream and I could not wait to get there. Little did I know what life had in store for me instead. I went to class for a week and everything was going to plan and then I received an unexpected phone call from my Mom, telling me to pack because there was a hurricane coming. My 18-year-old response was of course it is not going to hit us because it never does and I ignored her request for me to pack my bags. Shortly after that phone call, she was at my dorm and we were packing my bags. I was unaware at that moment that my dream school would not be the same when I returned.

So we packed up the car and drove to Houston, Texas where my family lived so we had a place to stay during our evacuation from the hurricane. In case, you are not sure I am speaking of Hurricane Katrina, which made land fall on the morning of August 29, 2005. I spent the next few weeks in Houston and then returned to me beloved LSU. At that point, I was unaware of the magnitude of the situation. My classes that previously had 300 people were now 700 people due to all of the schools in New Orleans closing. My family stayed in Houston until Hurricane Rita was threatening to hit Houston and they made the journey back to New Orleans.

I was stuck in my dorm and told I would be locked in my room if the winds rose above 35mph. With that in mind, my mom told me to drive home. Unexpectedly I drove through Hurricane Rita for the 75 mile trip from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, La. It was the first time I was back home and everything was different. Yes, our home was still there but it felt as if it the soul of the beloved city I spend my entire life in was gone. After the storm passed, I went back to LSU and tried to finish the semester. It was difficult and not the under the best circumstances for being my first semester in college. Once the semester was over, I decided to leave LSU and spend some time at home before returning to school.

Of course, as any person when you leave school it is always difficult to go back. I started working in a restaurant fairly quickly after leaving school. While waiting tables, I spent the next five years trying to figure out what it was I wanted to do for the rest of my life. After constantly thinking and reading about jobs I finally knew I wanted to do something with pharmaceutical drugs.

With my decision to return to school in mind, I moved to Kansas City, KS and began taking classes at Johnson County Community College in the Spring of 2011. At the time my goal was pharmacy school,slowly I began to take the pre-perquisites for entrance to KU pharmacy school. As time went on and more classes passed my goal shifted more towards research than pharmacy school. It was clear to me after taking Organic Chemistry I and Microbiology that I wanted to work in research and earn a Ph.D. Organic chemistry was an amazing class that showed me I had the ability to make material such a acetaminophen and microbiology opened my eyes to the world of microorganisms and their effect on humans.

I began to search for a school that offered a degree in the Kansas City area that would be beneficial to my career in research. I found Rockhurst University through a friend and loved the campus and atmosphere, but more importantly the University offered a biochemistry degree as well as a scholarship for transfer students. Quickly, I applied and had everything in order to begin classes the Spring semester of 2014.

Working on my biochemistry degree has given me the best of both worlds as it has led to research opportunities at Rockhurst in both chemistry and biology. Also, I have worked as a teaching assistant in Organic Chemistry at Rockhurst since fall of 2014. I have also worked as an intern at Kansas Univeristy Medical Center for the summer in 2015 and am currently working as an intern now in the Avasthi Lab.

" Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled and that has made all the difference." --Robert Frost