Being Passionate

Sometimes I forget why I'm here. Why I do the job that I do. Then there are instances that snap me out of my slump and remind me. Today was one of those days.

Lately I've been feeling very discouraged by the amount of schooling it will take me to achieve my ultimate goal of becoming an IBCLC. Then I read this today on one of the mommy blogs I follow. She's giving an update on her three-week-old daughter..."We are also going to start supplementing with formula because there has been a question as to whether or not my milk alone has been satisfying her. She still wants to feed OFTEN! Sometimes it could be every 45 minutes to an hour!" I know a lot of my readers don't have kids and you probably don't care, but understand that everything she's describing is common, and even normal! Breast milk is digested at a rapid rate, and her baby's tummy is tiny, only holding a few ounces at a time if it's completely empty.

I just printed out the sheet of required pre-requisites before I can even apply to the program. There are 14 classes. By the end of the semester, I will have taken 2. At least two of them are intense, almost full day classes, which would make it virtually impossible for me to hold a full time job while trying to do this. Again, this is BEFORE acceptance into the program.

If I take the classes how I guesstimated I will (unless something happens that allows me to go to school full-time), I will enter the program in the Fall of 2017 and pass the exam making me Board Certified in July of 2018. I will be 27 (almost 28) years old. I am very, very likely to be married with at least one baby by the time I enter the program. But by reading by what the above blogger has said, I snapped out of it, just like that. I don't care how many years it takes, I will do everything in my power to help those babies and mothers that fail at breastfeeding purely because they're unbelievably and incredibly misinformed by society and pediatricians alike.

For now? I continue the trek of trying to pass biology lecture and remedial math, but find comfort knowing that some day I will get to live out my dream. I'm also taking the course to become a CLEC starting in January. :)

What do you feel passionately about?