For most college students, life is fashioned around the number of courses you are taking, how difficult they may be, the times they meet throughout the week, and how much effort will need to be exerted in order to do well, or in some cases simply pass them.

You’ve closed your last book, you’ve finished your last final, you’ve walked across that stage and were handed a piece of paper with your name on it. You’ve done it you finally graduated!

Wait, but now what?

It’s time to put everything you’ve learned throughout those seemingly endless years of education into application in the real world.

I asked two sisters this very question, Dr. Jacqueline McLatchy age 30 and Lauren McLatchy age 25. A pair of siblings that I had the pleasure of meeting at Northwell/Long Island Jewish Hospital Residency graduation party. My curiosity was piqued after I overheard the younger of the two ask the other when her plastic surgery practice on 5th Avenue in NYC will be open to the public. I probed each of them concerning what they decided to do after they had graduated from college, and what motivated them to take the path they are on.

Photo Credit – Kevin Berrezueta

The two chose to follow science related majors during their time at University. Dr. Jacqueline McLatchy indicated that even before graduating from Rochester Institute of Technology with her bachelors in Biology, she knew she wanted to continue her path onto becoming a doctor. She took her MCAT’s acceptance and immediately started medical school at University of Pennsylvania. Lauren McLatchy also took her MCAT’s but elected to follow a different route once graduating Hofstra University with her bachelors in both Biology and Chemistry. Stating attentively, “seeing the stress and pressure my sister felt on a constant basis while having so little time to herself, I decided not to jump straight into medical school, putting my pursuit on earning my M.D. on hold for the time being. I realized that youth is fleeting, I didn’t want to spend it all being drained away piece by piece with stress.”

I pressed on wondering how they distributed and tackled finances after college. Oddly enough, both were awarded with sufficient academic and athletic scholarships to cover cost of undergraduate tuition costs. Dr. Jacqueline McLatchy concluded that she had long known medical school would be incredibly costly, at nearly $90,000.00 a year for four years, she would be drowning in debt once she graduated medical school. Once she managed to establish a payment plan, acceptance into and subsequently graduating residency four years later, she knew she wanted to open up her own practice. That dream will come true in the next couple months while she finalizes the marketing portion of her business. Lauren on the other hand, took a drastically different approach to handling her finance’s after graduating, her ambition was to explore and experience as much of the world as possible. Lauren has gone to 19 different countries (Mexico, Canada, Aruba, Chile, Dominican Republic, Italy, Morocco, Germany, Spain, Greece, Balearic Islands, Croatia, Gibraltar, Portugal, South Africa, Turkey, Monaco, Tunisia) and 23 states here in the U.S.

Photo Credit – Kevin Berrezueta

My last question was if they are happy with the paths they carved. Both offering a definitive yes! There are many paths you can follow after you graduate the vital key to your happiness is to do what you love while staying true to your ambitions. Their advice for me was to focus on my goal and follow it through, not to be discouraged by others simply because my path is being engraved with my own hands.