“What is my purpose in life?”, I have wondered my entire life.

I have always sensed that God has big

plans for me, but up until about three months ago, I was not able to see His plan clearly. I have said that
I have always wanted to be a doctor. When I was much younger, I loved going to the doctors. I was
never thrilled about the shots, but I loved sitting around looking at all the things that make up a medical
profession. I was intrigued by the knowledge of the human body, and how this knowledge can lead to
treating people. I thought that medicine was what I was meant for; however, one thing was always
missing from my interest in medicine. I was never able to answer “why”. What specifically made me
want to enter the medical field? Around senior year of high school, I came to the conclusion that I have
just been holding onto that childlike curiosity for medicine, but I am not that child anymore. I started to
get the feeling that there was something else that I was meant to do. I have played oboe since sixth
grade, and piano since eighth grade. The oboe, while everyone was warning me of the difficulty, I found
so natural – like I was meant to play it. When I began, I could not stop playing. The sound is so unique, I
feel like I am singing when I play. I have played in many orchestras and at my church, and people always
ask me “You must be going into music, right?”. I have always responded with a no. Oboe is just a hobby,
right? The same thing happened with piano, to my surprise. My brother used to play, and one day in
eighth grade, I decided I wanted to as well. I became obsessed, it felt so right. Hours would slip away,
the sound of oboe and piano filled our house perpetually it seemed. Within maybe six months, I had
surpassed my brother’s seven years of piano playing (not that he ever really was interested in piano).
Oboe and piano have been two of the most important things in my life. But it was not until my first year
of college that I realized how important they are to me. As I sat in my biology and chemistry class, two
subjects that I am supposed to enjoy as a pre-med student, all I could think about was music – the
passion of Rachmaninoff’s piano concerto, the art of making oboe reeds, even daydreaming about
playing the simplest scales. One day, as I was playing on campus, it all hit me. “I have a future in music”,
I realized. I had been looking at music as nothing more than something I enjoyed for fun, not as a
potential career. I went home and begged God to guide me through this decision. The next day, I was on
my way to changing my major. I now see that one thing that I was lacking in my interest for medicine –
passion. I think biology and the human body are fascinating, but my real passion lies in music. While I
still intend of being in pre-med, I know that God has given me a gift and love for music that I do not
want to waste. In music, there is that part that was always missing from medicine for me – fulfillment.