In the last few months, I've been asked the same question over and over as I've reached the halfway point in my undergraduate education: "What are you going to do for the rest of your life?" My responses kept changing until February, when my mom asked me during a car ride, and I finally had a response. I told her I was going to be a Nuclear Medicine Technologist. I graduated from high school in 2023, and all I remember thinking to myself was "this is the first day of the rest of my life". It was going to be a busy summer. I was starting an internship, I had a few dog-sitting jobs, and a month before graduating from high school, I started working at CAVA part-time. I had to make the difficult decision to move out of my parents' house at 17 to fulfill my commitments. At CAVA, we were understaffed, and there were always issues. My biggest concern at the time, funnily enough, is that my car smelled like hummus no matter how much I cleaned it. Eventually, I was hired at Green Street Restaurant as a hostess, but I had to leave because I wanted to be more committed to healthcare. I completed the EKG program at PCC in August of 2024. It was 8 weeks of lab and lecture, and eventually, 40 hours of clinical rotations. I spent 28 hours performing EKGs, 4 hours observing stress tests, and 8 hours with the monitor techs. In the 4 hours observing stress tests, I tried to decipher who was what in that room with me, and I noticed someone come with a syringe encased in what looked like steel. I remember from the lecture that stress tests can be performed using the BRUCE method or using Lexiscan, administered by a Nuclear Medicine Tech. I didn't think much of it. I started working for USC Arcadia Hospital in October of 2024, 2 months after finishing the EKG Program. I am currently still at the hospital, working as a Monitor Technician and Secretary on one of the busiest floors. It's been stressful and emotional, but the team is great. In February, I began spiraling and stayed up one night thinking about my career options. And I remembered the Nuc. Med. Tech from the program and looked for schools using the ARRT website, and checked the requirements. I did my research and went to visit a school. I was accepted into the Nuclear Medicine Program at National Polytechnic College this June and will start classes in late September. I think I can make an impact by continuing to be myself and to continue treating patients with the dignity and care they deserve. I think I prefer to be more hands-on in the work I do. As a monitor tech, I feel a bit isolated from the patients, and I feel like I forget my purpose at times. Eventually, I want to contribute to research in Nuclear Medicine and hope more opportunities to continue my education within the field arise in the future.