I Think I Can Do Anything, Do You?

By Eden Fucci, MS, Vice President of Biologics at Torque Therapeutics

Maybe I can’t do anything, but from a young age I believed I could do almost anything if I set my mind to it.  Sounds great, right?  I could be an astronaut, an artist, a baseball player, or even the president, but this is also the crux of my biggest struggle, the paradox of choice.  I wanted to do everything and was afraid to choose anything out of fear of selecting the wrong career (just maybe not the ones listed above).  Life doesn’t wait for you.  Blink.  Here I am today.  Did I just go with the flow?  How did I end up where I am if I never chose anything?  Let me take you through a few key decisions that ultimately shaped my career path, and while I still may not know what I want to be when I grow up, I am ok with that.   

I started college by majoring in international finance.  I was good at math, I wanted to make money, and I wanted to travel.  International finance checked all the boxes.  As glamorous as that career option initially sounded to me, I quickly felt that a future in business would lead to an unfulfilling, possibly unchallenging, career.  Let me clarify that I was nineteen and clueless at the time.  The next question became, what career option would provide financial benefit, would challenge me, would allow me to potentially travel, and would be personally gratifying?  My answer was to become a doctor.  I switched degrees, focused on getting into med school, and for several arduous years of undergrad I was content with this decision.  But by my senior year, I waivered again.  I was concerned that being a doctor would require a sacrifice in work-life balance that I wasn’t ready to commit.  I was now about to graduate with a biology degree and had no idea what to do.  However, I still needed to make money, so I decided to find a job in pharmaceuticals while I figured out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.    

The end. 

Ok, not quite the end.

If you are interested in hearing more about the rest of my career journey, please join me in the Anderson Room (G-8534) on Thursday October 31, 11 am – noon. If you’d like a lunch, please RSVP to brenda_knorr@urmc.rochester.edu

Tracey Baas | 10/21/2019