Nikki Chen is a third-year PharmD candidate at the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy.
The butterfly effect describes how each small action can have large and unpredictable effects as a part of the larger system that connects each fragment of our universe. You never know what the flap of a butterfly’s wings can lead to. The start to pursuing a career in pharmacy can be daunting and overflowing with the many different fields that student pharmacists can pursue. It’s tough to know which organizations to join or into which field to invest more time.
I found myself constantly thinking “How will I know if I like this until I actually do it? Am I doing enough to help further the profession?” As an anxious overthinker, I quickly reached a point of recognizing that I would freeze from getting overwhelmed by the many opportunities we have as students.
When I was paralyzed with fear, I was grateful for the mentorship and guidance from pharmacists looking to give back to student pharmacists and help me through my professional and personal journey. Donna Walker, BSPharm, founder of the Walker Leadership Scholars Program at the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy, has been one of the most influential mentors throughout my pharmacy school career, providing insight on leadership, career choices, and personal development. One of the key pieces of wisdom she has shared with me is what I hope to impart to you today: pursue the possible.
Take your dreams one step further
To pursue the possible means creating genuine, quality outcomes through your actions and decisions by aligning your capabilities with the resources around you. Oftentimes people, especially we student pharmacists, can be afraid to pursue different positions or bring ideas to life because they seem impossible or out of reach. For me, pursuing the possible is breaking down the mental barrier by making smaller and intentional decisions to simplify what, before, seemed impossible to accomplish.
Taking on foreign responsibilities is always a scary endeavor but starting with creating relationships with those who have done what you’re dreaming about and building foundational knowledge is the small step that can lead to big innovations for taking dreams one step further.
A career development motivator
For me, this way of pursuing the possible has been a really helpful piece of advice, and it’s led me to unique experiences. At the beginning of pharmacy school, I thought I would pursue ambulatory care to build direct relationships with patients because nontraditional roles in pharmacy seemed too difficult and out of reach. You hear it all the time that anything is possible, that with the right intentions and taking things a small step at a time, pursuing the possible can help each of us reach new heights. It’s true. I started with talking to pharmacists in industry, looking for small ways to get involved with related research and asking around for different experiences. This led to the opportunity to intern with FDA over the summer, and building a community for student pharmacists with similar interests through starting an Industry Pharmacists Organization.
As a proud current Walker Leadership Scholar, here is my advice: when you get to a crossroads and are fighting, flying, or freezing, remember to focus on pursuing the possible because you never know what that small action—like the flap of a butterfly’s wings—will bring to the universe.