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Turtles all the way up
How studying turtles helped me find myself
As a high school student I considered applying to study medicine, so I organised to meet with an emergency department doctor who I knew had been on the interview panel in the past. He offered sound advice, “Don’t say you want to do medicine to help people. Tell them how you want to be challenged and grow in a profession where you never stop learning.” Great, or so I thought, until he pointed to a photo of his family on his desk and said that was the most he sees of them.
I decided to study medical science instead. I assumed it would have better work-life balance while also satisfying my interest in medicine. And this way I could still do microbiology, like my maternal grandfather who discovered Legionella donaldsonii. It seemed like a great idea at the time. Microbiology and immunology indeed proved fascinating, and I greatly enjoyed learning about the inner workings of immune responses and microbes like bacteriophage.
Halfway through my degree I realised my mistake. I had spent years training to work in a pathology lab. But suddenly I realised this meant a future doing 24/7 shift work with limited social interaction and career progression, poor pay and conditions, and a job that even then I could tell would be automated out of existence long before I reached retirement age.
I needed an exit strategy. I thought about switching to a double science and arts degree, but my university didn’t offer philosophy and that was a dealbreaker for me. I was lost. Then one day I heard one of my lecturers was looking for volunteers to help with a turtle project. I enquired, and ended up accepting a two-year honours project that meant I could finish my medical science degree while studying freshwater turtles.
I had found my exit. I could salvage my degree and become an academic specialising in turtle research. I was lucky. The opportunity had only opened up because another student who had been lined up for my project decided to do something else. And for whatever reason, my honours supervisor decided to take a chance on me.
My grades were decent but far from the best. With my interest waning and a growing uncertainty my degree would be worth completing, at one point I was working full time, skipping…
