Faculty Essay: What do you want to do in

life?
Its a question many of us were asked as young people. The bold among us likely conjured up
occupations a far cry from the typical nine-to-five grind, only to learn later in life that job
opportunities like astronaut sheriff would be hard to come by.
I first contemplated a serious answer to this question when I was a high school senior,
preparing my college applications. This question can be difficult to answer under any
circumstance, but I found it particularly challenging to type a meaningful response with my
arms immobilized in matching plaster casts. A bizarre baseball accident that summer had left
me without the use of opposable thumbs for several months. The accident had ended my
baseball season prematurely, canceled my football season that fall, and essentially made it
impossible to leave my house without explaining to everyone I met that I had been in a home
plate collision and that yes, I had in fact dropped the ball and allowed the winning run to
score, thanks for asking.
However, the injury may have done one positive thing: It helped me figure out what I wanted
to do in life.
All my life, I played sports. And if you play sports long enough, you will get injuredits
about as inevitable as death and taxes. By the time my high school athletic career was coming
to a close, I had accrued an impressive number of medical bills. This meant I also had the
opportunity to spend a fair amount of time with my schools athletic trainer, shadowing his
every move, even running onto the field with him as he assessed injuries. After spending
much of my life playing on that field, it suddenly seemed like those same fair and foul lines
wouldnt make for the worst office space.
Twenty years later, I now realize I wasnt just describing a job; I was describing what I
wanted to do in life. For me, athletic training is not merely a career; its my calling.
My professional career at North Park began in 1996. My charge was to oversee the health care
of all the intercollegiate student athletes and teach a few athletic training courses. I was
confident I could handle my intercollegiate responsibilities; I was nervous about the teaching
element.
It took a few semesters, but the teaching started to grow on me. At first, much of my job
satisfaction had come from the simple joy of returning an athlete to competition. But as the
years went by, I realized I now had an even greater sense of satisfaction: watching a student
grow from an impressionable 18-year-old into a competent allied health professional I would
trust to care for my son should he ever suffer a bizarre thumb incident. Teaching at North Park
has taken what I had always enjoyed about athletic trainingexplaining an injury to a patient
and subtly changed my audience from a patient to an athletic training student with a thirst
for knowledge.
There are two distinct elements to my job that make me excited to go to work in the morning:
1) watching the light bulb go on when a student connects the dots on complicated material,

and 2) the thrill of watching alumni applying their trade in the real world. North Park athletic
training graduates can be found in high schools, college athletics, professional sports, sports
medicine clinics, and hospitals across the country. Several pursue additional degrees as
physical therapists and physician assistants. But regardless of where they end up, my hope is
that they view their jobs as I have come to view mine, and that they dont see themselves as
"going to work" at all.
Maybe its possible that the answer to the question, "What do you want to do in life?" is as
simple as a childs statement that he wants to be an astronaut sheriff. We should all aspire to
find a vocation where we cant distinguish the lines between work and play.
Andrew Lundgren is associate professor of athletic training and the director of the athletic
training program.
Essays My Aim in Life

Aimless life is certainly a sin. Many people have no definite aim in life. They are like the
travelers going a head without any destination. Such people lead an aimless life and what they
do in life, is largely a matter of chance, determined by the circumstances in which they
happen to be placed. Aimless people do not achieve any thing in life. They just live because
they have to live. One should have a definite purpose of life. The people who want success in
life, first of all, determine their target. They keep before them their circumstances, their
virtuous, their qualities, their talents and their ability to work. They select some definite target
of their life and remain successful.
Different people have different aims in life. Some aim at wealth, some at power, some at
fame, some at business and some at education and knowledge. My aim is neither wealth nor
fame. I wish to serve by country with best of my talent. I love Pakistan and I really believe
that every body should think to make it a really great country. I want to become a doctor. It is
a noble profession. In medical line, there is much more scope of service. On cen serve the
patients every where in the country. This is my personal choice. My parents have compelled
me to select it. I wish to become a very successful doctor in future. So I am studying hard to
achieve my target. I have keen intrest in medical line, so I do not feel any trouble in strudying
at all. After obtaining the medical degree, I plan to work in rural areas where there is much
shortage of doctors. My father is well off man and I do not have any financial problem. I do
not have the lust of money. I will go to the rural areas and shall help the poor people. I would
be best sort of service. This will give me extreme satisfaction and that is the aim of my life.
I know, my profession is very dignified and it will help me to get peace and satisfaction in
life. It provides you best chances of service. Sympathy to human being is the sympathy to one
own self.
I am an ordinary man and I know the practical limitations of my life. Therefore, I do not have
any dreamy impractical ambition. I only want to become a useful and honourable citizen of
my country.

I do not want to become a big man so that I might have great respect or a large amount of
wealth for myself only. I want to serve my country and my people. I do not want only riches
or position. I only wish to live honourable.
At present there is a craze for becoming an engineer. But I do not find any urge for that
profession. Somehow I do not have any taste for figures and sketches- Moreover, I feel that
what the country needs is not a large number of engineers but a large number of craftsmen.
The teaching profession is very noble but I dread the uphill struggle in the profession and I do
not find myself possessed with that element of sacrifice and exemplary behaviour which is expected of an ideal teacher.
Then, there is the lawyers profession. No doubt it has both money and respect in it but I
dislike it because one often finds it difficult to keep to the path of truth and honesty. One has
to kill ones conscience a hundred times a day. I do not want such a life at all.
The only profession, which has any attraction for me, is the medical profession. I wish to be a
doctor. Right from my childhood, the lives of eminent medical men have charmed my imagination. There I have seen the golden opportunity to serve the sick and suffering humanity.
India lives in the villages where many die for want of proper medical attendance. I shall
become a doctor and then go to the villages.
Rural countryside will be the scene of my activity and I will not keep my visiting fee more
than Rs. 2/- because I know that the common Indian cannot afford to pay more than that. My
aim is not to live in luxury and plenty.
I only want to live a life of simplicity. I wish an honourable life dedicated to the selfless
service of the country and the doctors life is ideal in this respect.
I only pray to God that my desire be fulfilled and that I become competent enough to act up to
the cherished goal of my lifeselfless service of the suffering humanity.