My decision to major in Speech Pathology was made by process of elimination. I have always wanted to be in career where I could help people, but I was never really sure what exactly I wanted to do. For the better part of high school, I wanted to be a pediatrician. During my junior and senior years, I did a lot of serious thinking about careers. I decided that I did not want to be a doctor because of the stress. I am honestly not that good at handling stress. I would not be able to have a job in which a bad day at the office meant someone died. Next, I looked into counseling. My senior year I was a peer mediator, as well as the unofficial counselor for my group of friends. I was used to having people to come to me with their problems. My friends came to me because they knew that I cared, would be honest with them, and would try to help them. Then, a friend brought me a problem that seriously changed the way I looked at life. This was not some little high school problem. This was a real life problem. We talked a lot, and I spent the next several months worrying about her. I realized from this that I get very attached to people. Now, that isn’t a bad quality in a person. But as a psychologist or counselor, I would need to be able to leave the problems of my clients at the office. If not, I'd go crazy, worrying about their every move or decision. Or, I'd become so detached that I would no longer care at all. I wanted a job in which I could genuinely care about my clients without developing ulcers or losing my humanity. Speech Pathology seemed like a very good choice.

Communication problems do seriously affect the quality of life for a person. Communication is involved in every aspect of life. To live is to interact, and to interact is to communicate. The more time I spend in this major, the more I realize just how important we really are to people. By helping improve communication skills, we are helping people live more complete lives. This is what I love about Speech-Language Pathology.