What I want to be when I grow up

Classes have started, and the first week is over. Students at Brigham Young University have been dropping, adding, and auditing classes for the past few days and should be fairly certain by this point which classes they really want to take. At least I am. I am fairly satisfied with the classes I have decided to take as well as those which my major has required that I take. Not only do I like my classes, I really like my major. Dietetics is such a wonderful career for me, and I will tell you why. On Thursday, during NDFS 290- intro to dietetics- we were asked why we had decided on dietetics and nutrition in general. I didn't raise my hand for various reasons of not wanting to be embarrassed (I seem to get tongue-tied and brain-dead when I try to speak publicly) and letting other people talk who seemed more eager than me to share their experiences. Although I did not raise my hand for the opportunity to speak my mind, I still have something to say about why I chose the major I did.
It all started with an online physical education course that I took during my junior year of high school. It wasn't necessarily extraordinary, but I had a very good teacher who presented the material very well and had a good way of making us learn the lessons. I enjoyed the exercises- even the stretching- but even more than jogging every day, I was fascinated with the nutrition portion of the class. I was amazed how much of an influence on my body food had. I found the desire to eat better and help others do the same. I told my online PE teacher that because of this course I had decided to major in nutrition. I might have said something like, "I have decided to be a nutrionalist." She said that she got goosebumps when I told her that. But that could have been from horror at my misnomer and the monster she had created. Either way, my love for nutrition was set.
The actual decision to be a dietitian wasn't completed until the summer I first arrived at BYU. I started thinking that was what I wanted to be when my Dad used to tease me about being a nurse. He thought it was so funny to say that I would be a nurse because he was the only one in my family who truly understood the extent to my squimishness. Not only do I get nausiated by only thinking of blood, but I break into tears and start bawling when I have to remove a splinter from my finger. Although I hope it will go away enough so that I can at least fix my children's boo-boos when that time comes, I will not fool myself into thinking that I could ever be a nurse. However, I do want to help people and one of the best ways to help people is to work in the hospital. By being a dietitian or nutritionist I would be able to do that and not pass out every day. In highschool I wasn't sure of the distinction between a nutritionist and a dietitian, but was informed that the basic difference between the two is authority. Dietitians can actually use their knowledge to help people and have authority to apply thier learning. So, what's the point of getting an education if you can't use it? Therefore, I want to be a dietitian when I grow up.