In August 2022, I arrived to the Netherlands with thrills and worries about starting a Business Information Management Master's program in a new university in a different country. I was very excited especially because it would be my first actual study abroad experience as an international student who is not just an exchange student. Also, I thought I would stay here longer and work after the graduation because I've always dreamed of working life outside of Korea. So, during my study, I joined lots of networking activities, including company workshops and events, student association committee, an extra-curricular program by SEBN, and internship also at SEBN even though I was already too busy coping with all the university works and the thesis.
However, life doesn't always follow how it is planned. In March 2023, I started to feel like what I was doing was not what I want in my life. Well, actually, it was not the first time me thinking like that. It goes back to my elementary school years, where there is the earliest relevant memory. When I was an elementary school kid, I had a lot of dreams. Like, A LOT. But, among them, what I really wanted to be was a doctor because I really liked helping others. I especially loved the feeling of huge happiness whenever I joined some volunteer activities or some sort of actions that could become any kind of help to others. So, when I entered middle school, I participated lots of science-related clubs and contests also because I really enjoyed science courses. But, as many children around me back then, what I wanted to be was just what I wanted to be, and what I actually kind of need to do was to get an admission to a specialized high school because it was sort of a trend in where I spent my childhood and teenager years. Of course, at first, I aimed for science schools or schools where there are many alumni studying medicine at universities. But, with my grades from middle school, it was a bit risky to apply to those schools, so a private institute teacher told me to apply to a foreign language high school instead. And luckily I got accepted to Busan International Foreign Language High School. But then, from the year when I became the second grader of high school, the government told my school to get rid of the courses for the science/math track because the school should focus more on language education. Due to this policy, there were a few classmates transferring to another school to take those courses, but I just stayed because that was what most of the students did. Since I didn't take enough science and math courses from the school, I couldn't apply to any 'Bachelor of Science' programs, so I applied to Business Administration program. Well, to be honest, I didn't know what business administration, management, and economics are because there were no courses related to those areas at school. The reason why I still applied to that program was that my mom told me to because it is relatively easy to find a job after the graduation from a business program than many other 'Bachelor of Arts' ones. But, from the second year of my bachelor's study, I started to hate my major. Apparently, I wasn't that much interested in business, and I just wanted to study something related to medicine or medical science. So, I took the third semester off to persuade my parents about how much I didn't like business study, and so, I wanted to drop from university and prepare another application to programs where I wanted to study. However, they didn't let me do so because they were worried about what if I end up with accomplishing nothing. So, at that moment, I thought that I would have to first finish the bachelor's study before doing something. Still, I didn't want to take traditional management/business courses. What I chose to do instead was to take trendy courses that are combined with non-business components, including database management and business/marketing analytics. Also, since my bachelor's program didn't involve thesis, I joined one of my professors' marketing analytics seminar, where the students proceed with their own project and have a meeting to share their progress and results every week. Fortunately, I found analytical tasks and activities quite fun and interesting, so I decided to pursue a master's study in that area. And that's the reason why I applied to a master's program in the field of business information management, whose major study and research topics are related to digital business, technologies in business, or business data science.
At the moment when I started the master's study, I thought that I would now be satisfied with what I was doing. I mean, I was, but, as I'd never had any opportunities at university to at least try studying or experiencing the field that I'd been always interested in since I was a child, I still felt like something is lacking from my study and career. I couldn't find enough meaning to keep doing the business data science and analytics career with my life values. So, I decided to do another master's study possibly in the field of bioinformatics so that I can contribute to human health and medicine using the data science and coding skills that I developed during my study and internship. But, because my bachelor and master study were not highly related to biology, and especially molecular biology, I can't apply to a master's program in bioinformatics right away. So, I'm wrapping up my short one-year life in the Netherlands and going back to Korea to focus on preparation for the next study.
Currently, I'm aiming for the application for September 2024, but I'm not 100% sure whether I'll be able to meet that goal. Yet, of course, I'll have to try my best to get ready for a successful admission next year. To the best of my knowledge, most of the bioinformatics programs require (academic) background in (molecular) biology, chemistry, computer science, or other scientific fields. Although I have some coding and data science experiences, I have no biology or chemistry background, so during this gap year, I'm going to learn at least biology and molecular biology on a bachelor's level while keeping practicing coding for at least 2 hours every morning.
So, I made a new category named 'Gap Year (2023-2024)', and I'll keep posting my progress in coding and biology there. I hope I'll be able to get an admission to bioinformatics master's program for next September! Wish me luck!
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