By Will Zembricki
So it all starts back in middle school. In Freehold Regional High School district in NJ middle school students are able to apply to programs in any of the 6 schools in the district. I applied for two learning academies one being Law related at Colts Neck HS and the Medical Science Learning Center at Freehold Boro HS. I ended up attending the program at Freehold after being accepted to both. This began a pretty rigurous academic career for me.
Starting my freshman year we began taking AP classes and accelerated math courses. 3 classes out of the day were with my fellow MedSci classmates and the rest of the day I attended the HS for other classes. I was from marlboro so it was definitely a transition making new friends at a new school but I wanted to be a doctor and this was the best HS for me to get there. By the time I graduated I had taken 9 AP exams, recieved an 800 on my math SAT and was being looked at for colleges. My junior year I was diagnosed with CVID after a long year of medical tests and incorrect diagnoses. I missed over 35 days of school my junior year and still took 3 AP exams and my SATs.
I was fortunante enough to have parents that were willing to pay for my college education so I applied to 5/6 schools ready to go where the fun was. After hearing back from all the places I had applied to I was accepted into NJIT for their premed program on a full academic scholarship. NJIT was far from my number 1 school as it was in a rougher area in NJ and also had no football team. I decided not having to pay for school would allow my parents to have a better life and I really didnt care where I went. I went to NJIT as a bio major with the hopes of going to med school.
My first semester as a Bio major I hated and decided to try Biomedical Engineering since NJIT was more known as a engineering school than liberal arts. I had a professor named Dr. Hunter who really made me fall in love with engineering. I found the thought process of breaking issues into pieces to find a problem very natural. He told me I could be a great doctor but he really though I would be an excellent engineer. I had him for a few more classes thoughout my college career and he taught me to love engineering.
One thing he said that stuck with me was a heart surgeon could save a thousand lives through surgery, but the engineer that invented the pacemaker saved hundreds of thousands. I wanted to help the people in the country who needed medical attention and this made sense to me for making the largest impact. Between my own illness and my mother having MS I had seen the nastyness of medical industry at a young age and thought I could change it.
Sadly Dr. Hunter passed a year after my graduation. Dr. Hunter had cancer throughout his time teaching me and showed my class and NJIT that if you love something you show up. He would come to class sick but ready to teach. He was a truly impressive man that had a strong influence on my life and I am forever grateful to him for that.
Now none of this has anything to do with coding does it…? So, I got an awesome job right after the first summer out of college. I was traveling the country fixing IVF equipment and was able to get two of my childhood best friends hired at the company. We would spend a week in a domestic city together fixing medical equipment and exploring the new place. It was awesome but the pandemic quickly halted that. The company then cut my hours to 10 a week, and blocked me from collecting commission on any sales until I was able to travel again(I had been promoted for about two weeks to sales before they cut it). People I trained were working full time and calling me for answers. I evenutally switched to another company that was more local service.
Eventually the pandemic came back with a vengenance and even the local travel worried my doctor and myself. I asked to be reassigned to one of the remote roles they were hiring for and instead was let go from the company. This was the last thing that ended my love for the medical industry. I was a strong employee who already had great reviews from staff and customers. I did all the right things to be part of this medical company and I was fired for my medical condition. This just didnt add up. I spent months trying to figure out what I wanted to do. The BME degree was not an easy one to get and to throw it away would be really upsetting. To stay in the field and continue to make money for people who claim to care about people but really just want money is also very upsetting.
I realized that the thing i needed to worry about when changing my career was actually medical insurance. I thought about being a state trooper in NJ as they had great coverage. Then a friend of mine got me a job with an genetic sequencing company helping with their deployment into the IVF world. I saw here that I really wanted to be a part of the software field. The companies in tech seemed progressive, the staff seemed respected, and you could go remote if traveling was a direct threat to your life.(crazy that had to be a qualification am i right?!?!)
I loooked at bootcamps for a while and stumbled upon Flatiron. The education structure is different from the engineering school I was use to. The culture is more collaborative, the work is more rewarding, and the logic I loved is still very much there.
I am very happy I made this transition and I look forward to the career finding aspect of it. This past year was a dark, sad time in my life ( as it was for many), and it felt like the entire foundation I spent my life bulding was slipping day by day and I couldnt stop it. I lost my career, my lifestyle, and my hobbies all within a year and couldnt do anything to stop it. It was petrfying and belittling to realize that you can do all the right things and still get screwed. It led to anxiety that I had never experienced before and so much self doubt.
Now things arent perfect but i have found a nice calm. I have done my best to find peace in the chaos. At first the lack of control over my own life was daunting but now its almost freeing. I accept the world is going to do what the world wants and I am just here for the ride. I believe that right now, or today, I am doing the right things to improve my life, and I have decided thats enough for me. As far as what the future holds or what my 5/10 year plan is, its to be as willing to change as I can be, in order to make my life the best version of itself. I am done sweating the small stuff(in theory lol). Life doesnt award the strongest, smartest, fastest or any of the traits we as people fixate on. Life rewards the people who are the most willing to adapt to their enviorment.
