My Future

As a senior in high school, I thought I wanted to be a nurse. I then realized that certain aspects of nursing school would not be a good fit for me. I took a class called Christian call where I got to help in a Pre-K classroom. I loved it and knew I wanted to be a teacher! As a freshman at community college, I knew this was because I loved being with kids. That following summer my mom told me to look up alternative options because she didn’t think that teaching would be a good fit for me. I saw Child Life Specialist and did a lot of research on the field and what steps I needed to take to become certified. You can have a Bachelor’s in anything as long as you meet the requirements for 10 specified courses, have completed a Practicum at a hospital, and a 600-hour Internship. Then you will have to take a test to be certified, similar to NCLEX for nurses. Child Life Specialists are individuals that work alongside hospitalized children to help reduce stress, anxiety, and trauma by educating patients about their bodies and procedures through medical play therapy. I’ll have plenty of opportunities to distract kids with bubbles. It won’t be all sunshine and rainbows. I will also navigate families and kids through grief and loss or even abuse and trauma. I feel super excited to have found a profession that matches my interests, passions, personality, and work style. This profession is not commonly known and is incredibly competitive. I decided last spring to not pursue licensure and won’t be going into my MAT year. I will instead get a M.S. in Child Life after graduation. I didn’t seriously commit to this profession until last March/April. In this past month I’ve applied to 4 programs and am waiting to hear back. I have attached 2 Tiktoks, 1 is how I’m feeling going into the profession and the schooling and the other is a sneak peek of what my day would look like as a future Certified Child Life Specialist.