In high school I worked as a hostess, cashier and sales assistant, so I had experience with customers but no real experience working in a pharmacy. If I had to make a life decision, I thought it wise to work in a pharmacy and see if I could see myself in the role of pharmacist. After my freshman year of college I decided to join an independently owned pharmacy and started volunteering here. The variety of services provided by this independent pharmacy made for a wonderful learning experience. The pharmacy was a full-service independent pharmacy and in addition to providing prescriptions for retail patients there was a robust nursing home business which exposed me to many medications primarily for seniors. One aspect that really excited me was seeing how the composition was executed. As I looked at the calculations and mixing, it became clear that compounding might be a part of pharmacy where my strong math skills might be particularly valuable. It was nice to come home and question my mother about the different names of the drugs and what they were used for. As well as realizing I was mispronouncing some generic names. It made me feel good to help people and I realized that with a little hard work, becoming a pharmacist would be the best career choice I could make. Even though I loved the science behind medications, for me the takeaway from a career in pharmacy was how good it felt to know that what I was doing was helping someone with every customer we served. I had discovered a career that gave me the same good feelings that my volunteer work gave me, and I never looked for it