I'm a sophomore physics major at a pretty well-respected university. Ever since I was a kid, watching Mythbusters and How It's Made and all kinds of space shows on the Discovery Channel, I thought I would build spaceships when I got older. I started out at my school doing mechanical engineering, but a couple of professors I spoke to expressed to me that the reason that they had gotten out of (the aerospace) industry was because a good portion of the work was too tedious for them. It struck me that if they, extremely competent engineers teaching at a good university, thought that the work they were doing was too menial that perhaps I might find myself in the same boat. Still though, my childhood dreams lived in the back of my mind.

I also happened to take a year off before I went to college and I spent 8 eye-opening months in a small village in west Africa, where I taught English, worked at a medical outpost, and lived with a host family. Whilst I was there, because I really, truly loved the feeling I got when I could help someone directly at the health post, I decided to pursue medicine. But I loved math and science too much to give them up entirely, so I settled for studying physics and doing my premed requirements. Now is about the time in my college career that I can no longer keep both options -- engineering and medicine -- open. I haven't had an internship or been a part of any project teams, but I think that if I start next year, I should be able to get some decent experience. I have a pretty good GPA right now and I am pretty much guaranteed a M.Eng. spot at my university after I graduate if I decide to go that route. I would love to work for NASA or some commercial space exploration company but I can't really see myself doing much else in the engineering world. Hell, I'm not even sure what kind of engineering I want to do! I'm also pretty worried that my lack of experience and strange degree combination would exclude me from the kind of work I want to be doing.

I guess I'm just a little lost and frustrated -- it would be amazing if I could just get a taste of what its like to be an engineer, some opportunity to shadow and see a day in the life. Having to choose right now feels so arbitrary -- I could (and probably will, to some degree) regret my decision either way.