I Want to Be a Doctor

I Want to Be a Doctor...or Something
Clean Transcript

Lightly edited from the supplied subtitle file for punctuation, sentence flow, obvious transcription errors, and readability. Conversational wording is otherwise preserved. A few unclear subtitle passages were kept close to the source rather than reconstructed aggressively.

Welcome back to I Want to Be a Doctor...or Something. I'm Dr. Robin. I'm here with my friend Nurse Jill, a registered nurse. Hi friends. We're two healthcare besties doing the real, wild, and funny side of medicine for anyone who's thought about a healthcare career. Ready? Let's go. So I'm so excited to be here with Jill today. We've known each other for years now. And I'm a doctor, she's a nurse, we work together. So it's perfect, except that we're not working at a hospital or doctor's office; we're working at Dr. Robin's School.

So it's a little bit different, but I think it still helps with, like, how we work together as we know how things work in the same way, because we've both been in healthcare for like our whole lives, pretty much. Practically, since we were born, pretty much. Yeah, pretty much since we were born. How old were you when you started nursing? How old were you when you started nursing school? I think I was about three. No, I think I was, I actually started later in life, I wasn't your traditional student. So whenever I got pregnant with my daughter, that's what inspired me to go to college. So I was about 26 whenever I went into nursing school.

See, you seem like you've been doing it since you were three. But I know you've always been taking care of animals and caring in other ways. So yes, that caring nature is what really shows, I think. Oh, thank you. Yeah, I wanted to be a veterinarian at first. And, you know, I worked at a vet clinic for a little while and then just kind of decided that it wasn't for me, I was a little too sensitive for that. But whenever I went to nursing, that was something that I could do. Yeah, I loved animals. I had like way too many pets. At one point, I had hedgehogs and I traded one of my hedgehogs for a pair of parakeets.

And then I had a guinea pig. And then she was a very healthy guinea pig—and it turned out she was a very pregnant guinea pig. So then I had four guinea pigs. And so then I traded those and I got like, I had a lot of a lot of animals. This was back in the days of like classified ads in the newspaper. And so everyone I trained with was delightful and lovely and just loved animals. But I ended up with like, oh, and then I got someone's hamster, because one of her hamsters unfortunately was eaten by her dog. And so she wouldn't keep the other one; she was afraid it'd get hurt. And I was like, sure, I'll take your hamster.

So I just had way too many pets. So yeah, I started with animals too before moving to humans, though I always wanted to be a human doctor, but spent more time with animals than people, I think. Yeah, that's one lucky hamster for sure. So yeah, yeah, for sure. Same. I grew up in the country. We always had a lot of animals. I still have a problem to this day of rescuing every, you know, cat that I see on the street that needs a home. Sometimes I find a home, sometimes they end up living with us. But yeah, deep love for them. You see, well, you see my brother's cat come through, Eerie. So I don't think I ever told you where he came from.

I was teaching. So this was just a few years ago, my brother was living with me during the pandemic. So I was teaching on Zoom. And I went upstairs and there was this cat in my kitchen in a box. And I'm like, so like, no one else was around. I'm like, where did this cat come from? And Paul like popped in from the other room. And he's like, Oh, sorry, I was looking for for stuff he might need. The neighbor just brought it by. And I'm like, okay, still no explanation. Why did the neighbor bring the cat? He's like, Oh, well, because Laura said that you would take it. And I'm like, Oh, did she now?

So Laura is one of my neighbors, her neighbor across the street, who had just moved in. I know him now, but I didn't then had found this stray cat, this really beautiful, fuzzy, very soft, velvety black cat went across the street to Laura's house was like, I don't know what to do with this cat, because my roommate's allergic to cats. And Laura's like, Oh, go see Robin, she'll take it. So that's how I ended up with that cat. But he ended up being my brother's cat, which, yeah, I get the whole taking people in. Oh, yeah. And they know when we're easy targets. I like the name Eerie, by the way. That's really cute. Yes, it's from Eärendil from The Lord of the Rings.

So, but not a good name for day to day. So Eerie is his short version, his nickname. You know, like Eerie, Indiana, from my era growing up. you probably didn't watch that show. Most people have heard of it. There was one season but fabulous show. If anybody else out there likes it. See, I missed everything because we're almost the same age. I think we're what a year and a couple days apart or something basically, like really close. Yeah, basically. But when I was a kid, I didn't watch anything contemporary. Like my mom was always showing me like old, old movies, you know, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, all that kind of stuff.

So yeah, I had to sneak and watch it at night whenever my parents were asleep. So but it wasn't that was very clever. Yes. They're, they're fun. Well, you know, what's funny is the ones that I saw the women all had careers mostly. They had a lot of, like, purpose in their lives and talking to other people our age, so many of them, they watched nothing but stuff where the women's goal was to get married. And like, I still remember so clearly, like, like one of them was called, I can't think what it's called, it was a Cary Grant, and I think Rosalind Russell. And she was a newspaper reporter, and he didn't want her going off after dangerous stuff.

And so it broke up their relationship. And then there's a scene where this like guy climbs in a window and like she's there. And finally, at the end, the thing is, they get married and they go like report together or something. I don't remember all the details. But like, he does not get in the way of her career. So that was like what I thought was supposed to happen. And then I started talking with other people who thought you were supposed to like give up your career and, and settle down. I'm like, why would I do that? So yeah, and this was like a movie from the 50s or something. And maybe even '40s or '30s. I don't know—a long time ago. It was black-and-white.

And yet some so many of the things we see have not changed. So that's true. That's true. But but that was a good example of, you know, what was coming and you know that, you know, you can have both. So that's great. You can sure have both. Yeah, no, because we both have kids. And I think it's so good for the kids to see us doing our lives. And I mean, your daughter wants to be a veterinarian. So she is going to be also balancing being a veterinarian, or whatever she decides to become, in the end with whatever else she does in her life.

So I know they all have and I'm glad that we can be at least a role model to let them know that you know, they can do it. It may take a while to get there like it did in my case, and absolutely, you know, absolutely do it. So Well, I feel like it took me a while to get here because I became a doctor right away. But then I discovered late in life, not that late, but you know, I actually really love teaching like this is, I loved being a doctor, don't get me wrong, I really like that. But like teaching is the funnest part of it all. So I did a ton of it as a doctor.

But now I get to do it all the time, which is really fun, you know, and that's so inspirational to our kids too, because you were an absolutely phenomenal doctor. But as a teacher, you are inspiring our children, you know, to do what you do, or to do what I do, or just to do any kind of career, you know, whatever makes them happy, but you're giving them the tools to be able to succeed. And that's really awesome. My daughter, you know, has been with you since she was 10 years old. It has been life-changing, basically, you know, for how she views science, it's not boring, it's fun. It is. Well, it is fun.

I think learning with with anyone, I've had some of my best teachers, one of those who got so excited about it. So that's such an important part of teaching it. But then I think also having them see us change careers. It's good too. I mean, you're you're an artist now. I get to see you change from nursing to something else. I mean, she's seeing you work with me, but also just different types of nursing. And, you know, so often we're told like, what are you going to be when you grow up? Like there's one version of you from like 18 to 80. You're one person and can never change. That's like, never change.

You're always going to be the same, which like, that doesn't make any sense. I think I saw something somewhere a few years ago, I think it was actually a chancellor of my university who was giving a talk and said the university I graduated from, I was not in university a few years ago. I'm not that young. But yes, exactly. But she said something like the people graduating from college at that point were going to have an average of five careers, three of which probably didn't exist yet. And that really hit me because, yeah, we're raising our kids for this future. We don't know what it's going to be.

But we can pretty much guarantee that they're not going to be in the same career their whole lives. Because I mean, I don't know about you. I think our official Social Security retirement age is like 70. Like that's a long time. We've got like a lot of we could do multiple other careers in that time. Yeah. Or might have to who knows. It's good. Also that it's good. I mean, our jobs right now, what we're doing right now did not exist. No, I know. And we're so glad they do now. I mean, we love doing this. We both just absolutely love teaching, tutoring, in my, you know, instance.

But yeah, just just watching kids, you know, as they learn and as they grow and as they see the possibilities. Oh, for sure. Well, and like we get to see each other all the time. It's I know. That's awesome. Yes, we're just texting. Yes, every day. I love it. Yeah. I like when my phone dings and I see Dr. Robin on there. But yeah, she's well, you I mean, you're always like just really pleasant. You're fun to work with. We get a lot done together. I mean, we have an amazing team. We do some really cool stuff, but it's like it's a fun atmosphere.

And so whatever career people choose, you know, they may not hit it right at the first, you know what they really like, but they can keep working towards it. And they may find their Dr. Robin, you know, somebody that they really enjoy working with. So I was just talking with our student intern about that earlier when I met with her, that you know, obviously, we're talking about the stuff we're working on. But also, she was thinking about like, where to go for university and things. And I was like, it has to be something where you're going to have fun. Like, don't go somewhere just because it's like supposed to be good for something.

Yeah, there's a certain aspect, like you don't want to go someplace terrible. But like, you have to be happy. You have to be around people you enjoy. You have to be, you know, for me, I need to go to a small university because I like being in small groups. But one of my brothers went to a really big one because the kinds of things he wanted to do weren't available at small universities. And, you know, I think that's true for our whole lives, our whole careers is find a place where you're happy and you can do what you want to do, whatever, whatever it is that suits you. So I completely agree.

Because, you know, that's why we're all individuals for a reason, you know, so that way we can make our own choices. And you're right, it doesn't really matter as much, you know, for picking the school that's, you know, held to such high standards as it does. What makes someone really happy, you know, what gives them a passion to keep going, to excel, to complete their degree because a lot of, you know, a lot of people start college and they don't finish. And, you know, it just makes me wonder, you know, why I know life circumstances happen. But, you know, part of it might just be that they maybe didn't choose the right one for them, you know. Yeah.

Well, I think finding a place where you can really shine, like for me, I needed to be in a smaller group where I could really like flourish as me. And, you know, I gained so much confidence. I used to be so painfully shy, which now I tell students and they're like—and I'm like, no, like you put me in front of people and I would like panic and my teeth would chatter. You couldn't understand a word I was saying. So being in that smaller liberal arts setting, first of all, I could explore all my interests because I'm, I'm very random. That's why we're here doing what we're doing.

I could be all over the place, but also I could be with that smaller group where I really gained confidence and felt comfortable enough to like become me, I guess, that I don't think I could have done in a bigger setting. But, you know, like I said, one of my brothers went to a like multiple times bigger than me university and loved it there. So it's all what's best for each person. Yeah, you're right. And yeah, you do you seem so social. So that is hard to imagine. But, but would you agree that like college and those experiences you had kind of helped raise your confidence in your self esteem level? Oh, for sure.

I mean, college hugely volunteer, there's I had a volunteer thing I did for a while that was a living history where I like I dressed up in a full 1890s costume, I was the teacher in the one room schoolhouse as a teenager. And I loved it. And it also gave me that confidence to actually talk in front of humans. Because up until then, like I was good with animals, because animals don't judge you. But humans really scared me. I was like, I don't know what they're thinking. Whereas animals, you know what they're like. I'm sorry, do you hear me? I'm speaking of animals. You hear my dog barking? On cue perfect. We actually paid the dog to be here.

He's like this big and he thinks that he like is saving us. He's adorable. But yeah, you talk about you know, back to your college days and stuff like that. So I've always been like, more of an introvert. So I did a lot of online stuff, you know, I couldn't do completely like nursing school and things like that online. But, you know, being homeschooled, things like that, I was kind of independent with my schoolwork, things like that. And so I did a lot of online classes. And that was one thing that kind of made me comfortable and me happy. So that's also an alternative, you know, for people to Yeah, well, I think people knowing that you change and develop can be really helpful.

Like in high school, not only was I shy, but I was bullied pretty badly. And so during lunch, I didn't go eat in the lunch room. But it just was awful. And so I for a while, I would hide up in like the second floor art area in this little and we were not supposed to be up there during lunch. But the security guard who patrolled that area, I still remember we called her Helen the Hellion, because she was so mean. But like, she was so nice to me. And she just let me stay there. And she was like, you need to figure out something else. But I'm gonna pretend I don't see you. And I was like, Thank you so much.

And so I ended up becoming a TA for the biology teacher. And we had like one biology teacher, I was a TA for years, I'd set up experiments or dissections or grade papers, like anything to not go to lunch. And yeah, you can go from that to like, still having a successful life with friends and a career and a family. And, you know, I still like I'm, I got bullied many times in my life, I think they say that you have to like stand out in some way and care. Those are the two reasons. Like, if you if you totally blend in, or you don't care, it doesn't like my son does not care. So he was never bullied because he didn't care.

So it was no fun for them. And, and then someone figured out how to get to Charlie: bully Elian, because it bothered Charlie, the big brother. And that's how they got at Charlie. But you have to like stand out in some way and care. So if you don't care, they don't bother. But I stand out and I care. And so I just, it was an ongoing issue. But it doesn't mean it's going to be forever. Right. You're right. Yeah, I remember bullying in school when I was in public school for a short amount of time, I got bullied over freckles, and then my speech problem. So I couldn't talk where you could understand me at all. I took speech.

No, like, I don't know, a couple of years, something like that. I think you would never know. I cannot tell. So thank you but yeah, occasionally if I get really nervous, it'll still kind of come out, you know, stuttering or mispronouncing things or something. But she was a really mean speech teacher. She would hit me on the head with a folder, not for it hurt or anything, but she'd be like, say, just like, you know, I'll be like, Oh, you know, but, but, but it really, it helped, you know, it's tough love looking back. But I know you would never know I was in speech therapy too, but for a totally different reason. I was born in Texas, but I went to preschool there.

And apparently I picked up a lot from my teachers because I talked with a pretty heavy Texas accent. And so we have a cassette tape of me saying my alphabet, which was I by sigh. So like, really, everything was at least two syllables. And even now I've certain words that like mirror mirror or mirror, there's different ways of saying it. And my natural inclination is to say it the Texas way. But when we moved to Illinois, they put me in speech therapy to cure my Texas accent. Because we can't keep that accent in Illinois. Yeah, they had trouble understanding me. And so they fixed it, they cured it. But still, when I'm tired, it starts coming out again.

Okay, I mean, Tennessee is kind of similar to Texas. So I'm sure I have a little bit of the southern drawl as well. So which there's nothing wrong with that either. So no, you sure it's one reason I love having you talk to our families because it's so warm and like, there's nothing wrong with like any accent. Of course, it's just a warm, caring accent. So thank you. Well, same to you. That's it for today. If you want to be a doctor or something else healthcare related, head over to docrobinschool.com/podcast for your goodies. That's Doc Robin—like the bird—School dot com. Yeah, and don't forget to hit subscribe so you don't miss the next one. So bye friends. Thanks. Bye.