I've had a webpage for many years, I got on MySpace a couple years ago and now I have a blog and I'm pretty thrilled about that! I know, that sounds kind of goofy but apparently it doesn't take much to get me excited. I've been thinking about starting a blog based on my life as a radiography student for a while now but this first semester has been so intense that this is the first chance I've had to work on this project.
I just finished my first semester of a 2 year program. This semester was all didactic. In January, I will have clinicals 40 hours a week for the first 3 months of the semester and then I will have clinicals 3 days a week and classes for the other 2 days.
How did I find myself here? Well, I can tell you that I didn't dream of becoming an x-ray tech when I was little! But life takes you in odd directions sometimes. While I had no dreams of going into this field, I was introduced to Marie Curie at an early age. In my very early years of school (I used to think it was first grade but now I'm thinking it may have been 2nd or 3rd - at any rate, it was back in the dark ages), my class was given an assignment to write 6 very basic biographies (find a famous person and write about who they were, when they lived, what they did). I can only remember 2 of the 6 I chose to write about: Carrie Nation and Marie Curie. I'm not sure why but Marie's story in particular fascinated me.
When I was in my mid-30s, I found myself in the midst of a divorce with no skills or higher education. I had been a stay-at-home mom for many years and while I planned on possibly going to school once my son was grown, I thought I still had time before having to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I had no idea what to do or what direction to go in.
I ended up going through a one semester program at the community college for adult re-entry students. It was comprised of 2 classes - an intro to the Microsoft Office programs and Career Work Exploration. As part of the latter class, program heads from 3 of the college's academic programs came to speak to the class. We heard from the heads of the hydrology, physical therapy and radiography programs. It was then that I decided I wanted to go into radiography. I liked how there was both a technology side and a patient care side. This is also a position that pays fairly well and can't be outsourced. And I live in an area where there is a considerable amount of hospital-building going on so this seemed like a good career all around to get into.
Having never gone into higher education, I first had to spend 1 year getting pre-reqs out of the way. Then I spent 3 years on a waiting list. I was finally admitted into the program in August of this year and it has been a wild ride. I made it through the first semester and I'm looking forward to being able to start clinicals.
So why the blog title "Divergent Rays"? Well, while I had originally thought to have this blog all about being a student, that's not the sum total of who I am. I'm interested in many things and I'd like to share them with you - everything from my cats to crazy news stories.
