Thinking About the Future

 I always find it difficult to imagine what the future will look like. Whenever I'm asked questions like "Where do you see yourself in five years?" my first thought is that there's no way I can answer that. Five years is a long time and so many things can happen between now and then. But I'm learning to think of it more as a kind of visualization of where I would like to be in the future. 

Professionally, in one year, I should be one semester away from graduating with my bachelor's degree in Forensic Science. In five years, I hope to be knee-deep into a Ph.D. program in anthropology. In ten years, I hope to either be at the tail-end of the Ph.D. program or be beginning work as a Forensic Anthropologist, assisting law enforcement. Ideally I would like to make an impact on the field by contributing research that improves identification methods so that there are fewer and fewer people who go unidentified in death.

The societal challenges that matter to me are issues that deal with inequality, such as civil rights, the income gap, and access to things like healthcare and education. I want everyone to be treated equally and have the same opportunities, but that just isn't how the world works. Yet. As technology develops, it becomes easier to shine a light on these issues and there are some amazing people like Stacey Abrams who are making great strides in reducing the injustices of the world.

I'm cautiously optimistic that we will continue to see positive progress on social justice issues. I'm optimistic about the advancements that continue to be made in STEM fields that improve our lives. For example, I recently read an article* about patients with blood disorders like sickle cell anemia undergoing gene-editing treatment in a research study. After receiving treatment, these patients were thriving and appeared to have been cured of their diseases. I find this simply amazing and it is stories like this that make me hopeful for the future. 


*https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/12/15/944184405/1st-patients-to-get-crispr-gene-editing-treatment-continue-to-thrive

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