During my freshman year in high school, my science teacher assigned us to interview people in the community about how they use science in their careers. Although I don’t remember most of the people I spoke with, I can tell you that I spent meaningful time with a local community pharmacist who changed my life.
What I saw was a man who loved his career and truly cared for his patients. In an instant, I knew that I wanted to become a pharmacist, and I never wavered from that goal throughout high school.
Knowing what you want to be when you grow up at age 14 is unusual, but it is very liberating. I simply had to work backwards to figure out how to achieve my goal of becoming a pharmacist.
After high school, I chose to attend Ohio Northern University (ONU) because it had a unique pharmacy program. Rather than attending college for 2 years and then applying to the pharmacy program, ONU students were admitted to the College of Pharmacy from day one.
Although it was expensive, being in pharmacy school from day one and avoiding the risk of rejection made it worthwhile for me.
In college, I spent a lot of time in the library. Although the classwork was difficult, I did well with one exception: organic chemistry.
I did fail organic chemistry—a notorious “weed out” course—but I successfully retook the class over the summer and graduated on time with the rest of my classmates. Failing a course is a difficult stumbling block, but I stood strong and persevered.
Today, I’m thankful for the wonderful pharmacy profession for so many reasons.
First, I’m thankful that community pharmacists are the health care professionals most accessible to the public. If my local pharmacist wasn’t accessible to me, then I likely would have taken a different career path.
Second, I’m proud of the work we pharmacists do, the diversity of our career options, and the relationships we share with our patients and fellow health care providers.
Pharmacy is a profession that makes a real difference in people’s lives. It certainly has made all the difference in mine.
British Columbia, Canada, home, Language & Words, Musical Mayhem, Powell River, Spouses & Partners | Romantic | November 1, 2017
Me: “You know that ‘Happy’ song that you really hate?”
Husband: “Uh-huh.”
Me: “I heard it playing somewhere when I was out running errands today. You know that part where it goes something like, ‘if you feel like a room without a roof?’”
Husband: “Yeah, I guess.”
Me: “Well, I was thinking. A room without a roof, eh. Wouldn’t that be a cubicle?”
Bizarre, Boyfriend/Girlfriend, Health & Body, home, Pets & Animals, Texas, USA, Waco | Romantic | October 31, 2017
(My boyfriend has a German Shepherd who, while playing at the dog park, cut his paw on something. We are looking at the injury on our bed, trying to keep the dog calm.)
Me: “Here, let me take the blanket off the bed so he doesn’t stain it.”
Boyfriend: “Thanks, babe.”
Me: “No problem. I have dealt with plenty of blood in my life, and I know how hard it is to get stains out of fabric.”
Flirting, home, Language & Words, Roommates, Rude & Risque, USA | Romantic | October 30, 2017
(I am living with my mom, who is renting space from another woman who lives with her son. There has been some fooling around between her son and me periodically, but we’re not a couple. I’ve just run my first marathon and am resting on the couch watching movies, and he’s been texting his friends to hang out. Both of our moms are gone for the night and I’ve just gotten off the phone with my mom, talking about my marathon. This entire conversation takes place while my roommate looks at his phone.)
Roommate: *still texting* “So, how’s your mom?”
Me: “She’s fine. We just talked about my marathon and how sore I currently am. She says I need some protein and they’ll be less painful.”
Roommate: “Yeah, you need some protein. It’ll help you recover faster.”
(He’s currently standing next to the couch and his crotch is right about the same level as my face.)
Roommate: “I’ve got some protein I can give you.”
Me: *confused look* “What?”
Roommate: “Yeah, it won’t take long, and I can make it right here.”
Me: “Uh… I don’t really feel like doing that right now. I’m just really tired and sore.”
Roommate: “Seriously, it won’t take long, and it’s not that much of an inconvenience for me.”
(He finally looks away from his phone and sees my utterly confused face and notices his stance and location.)
Roommate: “Oh, my God. WHEY PROTEIN. I HAVE WHEY PROTEIN POWDER. DO YOU WANT ME TO MAKE YOU A WHEY PROTEIN SHAKE WITH MILK?”
Boyfriend/Girlfriend, Health & Body, Hotel, Salt Lake City, Silly, USA, Utah | Romantic | October 29, 2017
(My boyfriend and I have only been dating about a month, and I’ve warned him that I am horribly clumsy and he’ll probably spend a lot of time in emergency rooms with me if we end up staying together. Somehow, in the month we’ve been dating, I’ve suddenly become coordinated enough to hide this from him, so he doesn’t believe I’m as klutzy as I claim. We are on a business trip with some colleagues in Salt Lake City when the following happens. We are standing outside a hotel waiting for a cab. It’s early December and the ballroom of the hotel is decorated beautifully for Christmas.)
Me: “Oh, wow! Look at how big that room is, and it’s so pretty!”
Boyfriend: “It really is.”
(He is standing a bit farther down the window, looking in towards the back of the room. I swing my head intensely towards the window to get a better look at the decorations, which results in me SLAMMING my forehead hard enough to bounce off the glass.)
Me: “OWWWW!”
Boyfriend: “WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!” *starts laughing*
Me: “Those are some very clean windows…”
Boyfriend: “This is what you were talking about it, wasn’t it?”
Me: “I warned you.”
Boyfriend: “This is going to be fun.”
(That was almost three years ago, and we were just recently married. I guess he decided he could handle all my injuries!)
Games, home, Pennsylvania, Punny, Silly, Spouses & Partners, USA | Romantic | October 28, 2017
(I’m sitting in the bedroom, listening to my husband play a video game in the next room. It’s a space flight game, and uses a “frame ship drive” to jump between star systems. Because of the voice they used for the computer, it always sounds like “friendship drive” to us. I love puns and wordplay.)
Me: “Hey, hon?”
Husband: *from next room* “Yeah?”
Me: “Your game needs its own show: My Little Spaceship: Frame Ship is Science.”
Boyfriend/Girlfriend, Chicago, Geeks Rule, home, Movies & TV, Silly, USA | Romantic | October 27, 2017
(There’s a TV series I’m a big fan of that features two brothers. The brothers are very different and don’t get along, and fans of this show tend to side with either one or the other. I’ve finally gotten my boyfriend to watch the show with me. I haven’t said much about my own preferences because I don’t want him to be biased, but [Brother A] is my absolute favorite character, and I’m a little worried my boyfriend will prefer [Brother B], who I think is kind of a jerk. We watch the episode that introduces [Brother B] and the conflict between the two, and I’m waiting for my boyfriend’s verdict, a little nervously.)
Boyfriend: “That was a great episode! I think [Brother B] is being kind of unfair, though. I mean, yeah, [Brother A] was being kind of irresponsible, but how was he supposed to know the portal could destroy the world when [Brother B] wrote the warnings in invisible ink? All [Brother B] said was that the secret journal had to be kept safe. That’s not much to go on, and [Brother A] was just trying to protect their family.”
(I’d been watching him with my mouth hanging open, and this was about the point when I finally just kissed him, cutting him off. This may be the man I marry
(My husband and I have had some really stressful months this year and we are really at the end of our mental and emotional resources. We recently had a big fight, which mostly had to do with us both being stressed, and now we are having a relaxing day to get away from it. We are stopped at a red light, and we start to discuss a chest of drawers we want to get. When discussed before, the idea of getting a lime green one came up, but now my husband is mentioning a beige one.)
Me: “Yeah, but I really liked the idea of the green one. What do you think of the green?”
Husband: “No. NO!” *wagging his finger at me* “I said, ‘NO!’ I SAID, ‘NO!’”
(At this point I was literally thinking, “Okay, he’s completely gone crazy.” Then I realized that a windscreen washer was standing outside my window and my husband was yelling at him.)
Boyfriend/Girlfriend, Health & Body, home, Silly, UK | Romantic | October 25, 2017
(My boyfriend has always had a problem with me cracking my knuckles. He’s tried everything to get me to stop. On one occasion, I am about to crack my knuckles when my boyfriend grabs my hand.)
Me: “What are you doing?”
Boyfriend: “Stopping you! Every time you try to crack, I’m going to rub them until you stop!”
(He starts rubbing my knuckles, and for a few seconds he looks satisfied, until he raises my finger and it causes one of the knuckles to crack. He lets go instantly and curls up on the other end of the sofa, looking thoroughly disgusted with himself.)
Boyfriend/Girlfriend, Food & Drink, home, Silly, USA, Wisconsin | Romantic | October 24, 2017
(It is our day off and my boyfriend and I each make something simple to eat for lunch. I mix salsa and sour cream together just to eat with some chips, but I unfortunately pour way too much salsa into the bowl.)
Me: *thinking to myself* “Hmm, [Boyfriend] might like to eat his pizza rolls with my salsa. Oh, don’t ask him that; what a stupid idea.”
(I leave the room for a couple of moments, and then come back and finish eating, but unfortunately end up tossing the rest of the dip.)
Boyfriend: *while I’m throwing out the salsa* “You know, while you weren’t in the room I tried my pizza rolls with your salsa, and it was really good, but I didn’t want you to see me eating it because I thought it was such a stupid idea!”
Hotel, Jerk, Medford, Oregon, USA | Romantic | October 23, 2017
(I work at a world-renowned brand of high class hotels, and most people are pretty surprised when they see me in a suit with piercings in my face — I have a nose ring and spider bites on my mouth. Most people are pretty supportive and interested, or at least polite, but then this encounter happens
Me: “Good afternoon! How can I help you today?”
Elderly Gentleman: “What’s that in your face? Stitches? A birth mark?”
Me: “No, sir! They’re piercings.”
Elderly Gentleman: “Oh, God, don’t even go there. I hate that. I won’t even date someone with facial piercings.”
Me: *smiling through gritted teeth* “Well, that works for me, because I wear them as a deterrent for men who assume that I dress for their pleasure.”
(My boyfriend is notorious for not noticing things in our living space. I have to put things right in front of him for him to notice, and even then it’s 50/50 chance he’ll react. I just put up a small picture of a character from a comic. A few minutes later he walks past it.)
Boyfriend: “Oh, I see you’ve put up a picture of [Character].”
Me: “Yes, I did. I’m surprised you noticed it this quickly.”
Boyfriend: “Why, has it been there long?”
Me: “No, I put it up like five minutes ago. But usually you never notice these things.”
Boyfriend: “Like what?”
Me: “The hedgehog figure I put in the window sill in our previous apartment? It took you weeks to notice it, and it wasn’t even that small or hidden away.”
Boyfriend: “That was just because I never looked at the window sill! Like, right now you could hide a dead body by the living room window and I wouldn’t notice because I never look that way!”
Australia, Health & Body, home, Revolting, Spouses & Partners | Romantic | October 21, 2017
(Flu season is really bad this year, and despite vaccination, I catch a nasty case. I’m really bad at being sick, and my husband and I argue about how much I’m allowed to do while ill. He has banned me from doing almost anything on my own, and I’ve been getting a little stir-crazy despite the fever, chills, and aches. He comes into the room as I’m climbing back into bed.)
Husband: “Are you okay? I heard you rattling around in here.”
Me: “I just got up to use the loo and re-wet my wash cloth.”
Husband: “I could’ve done that for you!”
Me: *pauses* “Repeat that?”
Husband: “I could’ve done that for you! You should really stay in bed.”
Me: “I’m not sure you can pee for me, Babe.”
Husband: *joking* “I could pee in sympathy. Like that time I rubbed your back when you had food poisoning, and ended up puking right after you finished?”
Me: “Thanks for reminding me of that. I totally needed it right now.”
Arizona, Engaged, Food & Drink, home, Parents/Guardians, Silly, USA | Romantic | October 20, 2017
(My fiancé has recently proposed to me. We rent our home next door to my father in an effort to save money. This can be convenient at times, if my father or I run out of something, if one of us can go to the store for the other, etc. My fiancé and I are sitting at home for the evening when I get a call from a family friend, who is currently visiting my father.)
Friend: “Hey, [My Name], do you guys have any cheese?”
Me: “Yeah, but it belongs to [Fiancé].”
Friend: “Oh. Do you think I could have some? Wait… Your dad wants to talk to you.”
(My father comes onto the line and asks the same question, saying that our friend is out of the usual snacks we keep on hand for her when she visits, since she is allergic to gluten.)
Me: “Hey, [Fiancé], can [Friend] have a couple slices of cheese?”
Fiancé: *rather reluctant since it’s an expensive brand* “Ehhh, I dunno.”
Me: *to my father* “[Fiancé] wants to be compensated. What does he get?”
Father: “He gets to marry my daughter. How about that?”
Me: “Okay!” *to fiancé* “My dad says you can marry me if you give [Friend] cheese. What do you think? You wanna buy me for two slices of cheese?”
home, Oregon, Silly, Spouses & Partners, USA, Wilsonville | Romantic | October 18, 2017
(My husband and I are getting ready for the day when following conversation happens.)
Me: “I told someone on the internet that they are wrong. Someone attacked my personality and I had to start a debate, you know? And a person kept trying to conjure some arguments, but all they got was a set of logical fallacies. I was forced to point them out. The person kept trying. I kept pointing out why my statement is correct and their argument has no ground. I think the other person was more invested in proving me wrong. And I had fun. I am so mean.”
Husband: “You are not mean. You just want to wipe your feet on them.”
Bigotry, home, LGBTQ, Scouts, Spouses & Partners, USA, Washington | Romantic | October 17, 2017
(My wife used to be a Boy Scout and was kicked out at 18 for being gay, before she came to terms with being a woman. So, I am surprised when she comes home with a box of popcorn the Boy Scouts were selling.)
Me: “This is the worst and least original joke, but is Boy Scout popcorn made from real Boy Scouts?”
Wife: “Yeah, it’s made from the gay and trans kids they kick out.”
Me: *pauses* “My joke wasn’t funny, but you didn’t have to make it sad.”
Health & Body, home, Silly, Spouses & Partners, Texas, USA | Romantic | October 16, 2017
(My wife and I are getting ready for bed. She’s been suffering from her allergies, stuffed up really bad. This night, it’s considerably worse than others. I do not condone violence; all of the following is said in jest.)
Wife: “Honey, I’m sorry if I snore too much tonight. If I get too bad, please—”
Me: *interrupting her* “Smother you with a pillow so I can sleep. Got it.”
Wife: “No! Just s—”
Me: *interrupting her again* “Right, smother you with a pillow. No worries.”
Wife: “No! Just roll me over!”
Me: *kissing her on the forehead* “Roger. Pillow, face, smother. Love you. Goodnight.”
Car, Non-Dialogue, Seattle, Spouses & Partners, Washington | Romantic | October 13, 2017
Early in my marriage, it became quickly apparent that my new wife had much higher, and therefore pricier, standards when it came to residences than I did. We were both from areas with much cheaper housing than Seattle, but at that time I was the only one who seemed to allow that to re-shape my expectations of where I could live. Sometimes I’d bring up a neighborhood I’d like to live in, and she’d recoil in horror; by her standards, such places were run-down and trashy, whereas by my standards they were quite reasonable and quaint.
One day we were driving on a particular stretch of highway that had notoriously bad traffic, and I noticed that my gas gauge was precariously low. I was coming up on the last exit before I would get onto the bridge heading into Seattle, and I wasn’t confident I could make it to the city on what I had, given the traffic. So, I took the exit and started looking for a gas station in the small township outside of Seattle. My wife was admiring the nice yards and homes and said calmly, “See? This is the kind of neighborhood I could live in.”
I replied, “Honey, this is Bill Gates’s neighborhood.” I gave her a “give me a break” look.
She got the message and saw her issue. Our standards still don’t match, but the gap is considerably smaller than it was.
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