Which is better...becoming a pharmacist, or a journalist?
The reason why I am now working at a newspaper agency is because I think that the latter is more interesting and, perhaps, better.
By being a journalist, I can travel here, there and everywhere, visiting thousands of islands in my country other than the main island of Java I've been living in all my life (btw, I live in an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands named Indonesia); and, hopefully, travel overseas, too.
Being a pharmacist...okay, there are perhaps some chances, but definitely not as many as those working as journalists can have. Most pharmacists have to work in the same laboratories, or the same pharmacies, or the same pharmacy divisons of the same hospitals almost every day in their lives.
Only those with remarkable achievements or lucky enough to get post at marketing division of pharmaceutical firms (i.e. those having attractive looks in addition to amiable disposition) can do a lot of travels (abroad).
However, this was not what I had on mind when I graduated from high school some seven years ago. Due to my quiet satisfying scores in chemistry exams, I thought I would do good in studies with many chemistry subjects. So, in addition to some other considerations, I chose to enroll at a pharmaceutical department of a local state university instead of basic chemistry or chemical engineering department.
Only after I was doing my final year at the School of Pharmacy I realized how I want to be a writer, and not a pharmacist.
But, that didn't necessarily mean I just quit from the school. In fact, after completing my undergraduate study, I immediately continued to a-year professional education, which can give me a competency certificate as a pharmacist, so I can work at hospitals or pharmacies.
Unfortunately, it was such a horrible final exam I had to take before graduating from the one-year study. I failed the exam, and had to wait for some six months before I could take part in another exam.
Prompted by my lack of money condition and rather extreme boredom, I then decided to apply for jobs I could get with my Bachelor's degree only; and...shortly, I thereafter landed on this publishing company I'm currently working at.
And the exam...? A lecturer said that I have lost my chance to take part in it due to my continuous delays to do it (caused by my full-time employment).
And how do I feel leaving the field that could or should have been mine?
There's a regret. I feel sorry for leaving it. You know, after years of study...and suddenly I don't make the study of any use...there's of course a deep regret.
I of course hope I can combine the pharmaceutical knowledge I have gained with my large interest in writing.
But, things don't always come the way we want to...and now as I do my favorite writing job nearly every day, I have to kind of abandoning the result of my five-year study in pharmaceutical science.
Well, well, well...things haven't been settled despite some encouragements, as well as discouragements from family and pals; the reason why I'm now writing it here.
Have any suggestions? I would appreciate all inputs. Thank you very much if you give me any...
Will my comment still have any relevance whatsoever, since it's more than a month since you wrote this? Well, I would keep writing anyway, so please bear with me.
Actually, regarding the issue of "my education doesn't match my job", what's the most worrying for you? (1) The fact itself, or (2) My family isn't too keen on the fact.
If the answer is (1), then don't worry. I think the knowledge about pharmaceutical stuff never really leaves you, whether you're directly involved in pharmaceutical field or not. I know many people would say, "What, you studied pharmacy, but now your work isn't pharmacy-related? That's bad. Don't you feel like wasting your five-year of study?" Well, if one thought that the only reason one went to school was simply so that he could get a job related to something they had studied--isn't that rather narrow-minded? Were the materials one got from attending classes the only things that one learned during that five years in college? And if the answer is no, then one hasn't wasted his time in his college because, surely everything one has learned for all those times would eventually be of some use in one way or another, wouldn't they?
Besides, is working in the field directly related to the subject one has studied in college the only way to make use the knowledge that one has obtained? If the answer is yes then too bad, because it makes one sounds like some 19th century Javanese that studied diligently only for the sake of securing a post as a sub-ordinate book-keeper under the mercy of the Dutch.
And if the answer is (2), well, I believe your family only wants the best for you. Despite their objection, if you can show them that you can do well for yourself in this field, I think they would respect your decision in the end.