Choosing Bioengineering

In high school, I struggled with a very simple question: what do you like? Nor could I answer the question’s counterpart: what do you want to do with your life? This issue did not emerge from a lack of interest in schoolwork, or an ever-changing set of hobbies, but instead from one little word: options. I loved writing. I read books on any and every topic. I took as many science courses as I could. I tried—and failed—to become fluent in Spanish. I secretly looked forward to my Calculus homework. Deciding which field to explore in college seemed an enormous and depressing task.

Looking back now, I have no idea how or when I decided to look into engineering. I talked to my Calculus teacher many times—he was a Bioengineer back in the day—and soon found myself leaning towards the major. I loved the idea of entering the medical field (without becoming a doctor—needles scare me), and research had always interested me as a kid. I am even happier now with my choice, after attending the first Bioengineering lecture and learning that communication is the most important skill of an engineer. One of my main fears about engineering was that it would involve only math and science; the fact that writing and communicating are so closely intertwined made me even more excited about the field. I feel lucky I found a major that suits not only one, but many, of my interests.