When I was in grade 11, I did a paper on Dr. Clyde Snow, a renowned forensic anthropologist, and decided that that was what I wanted to do with my life. I started my university life taking intro courses that would compliment a career in physical anthropology and forensic but after my second year I started to question whether this path was realistic for me.

At the time I had become interested in the field, it was still pretty obscure with the general public. Only a handful of Anthropologists with Ph.D's worked in a forensic capacity in Canada but I was willing to take on the challenge, then at the end of year 2 I met with a career counselor and he had made a comment which I assume was suppose to be encouraging and friendly. I didn't take it that way. It scared me. He said that he's finding more and more people are looking into forensics because of tv's CSI. Granted this still didn't mean the specialization of forensic anthro (although now there is the popular Fox show Bones that does) but it got me realizing that with the increase of interest it would be more and more competitive to get a job. A job that I really wanted. And needed since it takes a MINIMUM of 8 years to get your Ph.D not to mention the additional school needed in forensic and that costs money. A job that may be really hard to get as there weren't alot of them.

So I started thinking perhaps I'm not cut out for this field. I wanted a sure thing. I had always been interested in owning my own bookstore/bed and breakfast so I decided to pursue a degree in Business and then wound up worker in administration. After five year doing what I do now, I know that I can't work in administration for the rest of my life and I'm not ready, both financial and life style wise, to start my own business. I've been thinking of trying to get into the faculty of Education and becoming a teacher. The salary, benefits and holidays, which are family friendly, are nice security blankets for me after working in the private sector for awhile. Not to mention that its one profession that I feel I could make a difference in peoples lives and actually enjoy doing it. But unlike Anthropology or owning a Bed and Breakfast I'm not passionate about it. I like it but the passion isn't the same.

The increasing interest in the forensic science through television and other medias haven't been all bad though, with more and more people interested in pursuing careers in these fields universities are creating more courses and even degrees that specialize in them. Nine years ago I could find about 4 schools in North America with the specialty. Which means there are more positions for professors to work in the field. The private sector is also bring physical anthropologist on staff at coroner's offices to work side by side with pathologists and at other investigation services. This all means more job opportunities for me! Granted the competition is still high though.

Realizing that I allowed myself to talk me out of pursuing a challenging career because of the uncertainties of where I would work and the length of school I would have to go through, makes me want to make it up to myself and go back. I'm done my university degree in business admin this summer, I could go back and acquire the required courses for a bioanthro 4 yr undergrad (about 60 credits more = 2 years full time) and then apply for my MA and Ph.D. I would love to this but as usual there is always a but, this would mean that I can't work full time anymore during the school year so my salary could be cut in half or more. This is fine for a 1st year student at the age of 18 who doesn't have debt collected over the years but I do, not to mention I have grown accustom to a certain way of life. I don't know how comfortable I would be going back to being broke all the time!

I don't know what to do. Is passion enough? Should I rack up student loans for the next 8 years? Is there another way that I can make enough money to pay for that lifestyle with out being left with debt to pay off once I get a job? Should I just stay with teaching as its safe?

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