by Rocio Delgado
Once in a while, people must make important decisions that will affect the rest of their lives. My friend’s moment was 4 years ago when she decided to quit her well-paying job to move to the United States. She had been applying for a couple of years, and finally she was accepted to South Dakota University to pursue a PhD in Pharmacy.
Because she was one of my best friends, I missed her a lot. We've known each other since college, and later we used to work together for the same company. In every board meeting, she used to get behind my ideas as I got behind hers. Three months ago, I decided to go on sabbatical because even though I was getting ahead in my career, I didn’t have enough time for the real important things in life. I felt I needed to get my priorities straight. Therefore, I handed in my resignation at work and moved abroad.
My first destination was obviously the USA. I learned to love New York City and endured the pollution and crowded spaces. I learned to like the transportation system--you can love or hate the subway, but you have to feel something for it--and got hooked on the hot dogs on 7th Avenue in Manhattan.
A week ago, I decided to visit my friend in South Dakota and landed at the Sioux Falls airport. We went to her laboratory inside campus. She showed me her current life as a researcher, and even though I was happy for her, I noticed that her lifestyle is not for me. Although I earned a Master’s Degree in Pharmacology in my home country of Peru and I could apply for a PhD there, the life of a PhD student is just not for me. I want to avoid weekends spent away from friends, cooped up in my room studying or in the lab experimenting with mice.
Now, I've come back to NYC to take my TOELF exam, and I am so grateful to my friend for letting me see how she lives. Staying with her last week, hanging out with her friends and being part of her current life really helped me to distinguish what I really want to do with mine.
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