Why did I become an Optometrist?

Many patients often inquire when my optometric quest began. To tell you the truth, I am not 100% sure. I always knew that I wanted to be in the medical field. I love helping people, and curing them of their ailments was something that I longed to do. I remember receiving my first pair of glasses at the age of 16 and thinking that it was a cool job. And when I had a not so great experience with contact lenses at the age of 18, I was even more intrigued. I became fascinated with vision.

Starting college at the University of California- Irvine, I started thinking about genetics, another field I was fascinated with. But after my first genetics lab when I was sitting in a room all by myself, I knew that optometry was my calling. I started researching the field a bit more.

Optometrists can do much more than most patients think. I know we all think that optometrists sit in a room all day asking, "Which is better, one or two?" But I learned that it was much more than that. Everything that affects the body, affects the eyes. And by looking at and into the eyes, optometrists can help detect a wide array of conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, to name a very few! So I became an optician and started shadowing optometrists. I got to know a few in the area and fell in love with this profession.

This was the love that kept me going through undergrad and eventually another four years in optometry school. Everyday was a different adventure, learning about another aspect of our eyes and vision. Now, thinking that I have been in this field for over 20 years, I can honestly say that I made the right choice. There is nothing more that I would rather be doing.