Todd: So hey Josh, how you doing?

 

Josh: I’m good. How are you?

 

Todd: Oh, doing pretty good. Josh, how old are you?

 

Josh: I am 17.

 

Todd: 17, so you're kind of at the start of your life.

 

Josh: Yeah, I guess you could say that.

 

Todd: That’s pretty awesome. So what do you want to be in the future? Like what are your plans?

 

Josh: Well obviously, I want to go to college and after college I’ve thought about going to optometry school to become an eye doctor.

 

Todd: Wow! An eye doctor.

 

Josh: Yeah.

 

Todd: What is it that made you would want to be an eye doctor?

 

Josh: I guess it kind of started when I was really little and I got glasses for the first time. And when I got those glasses, you know I put them on and I really needed them. And no one found out that I needed them very quickly and so when I first put them on, I looked around and everything was so much crisper. And I think my mom always says that when I looked around I said, “Mom, I can see the trees and I can see all the branches. And it’s so cool”. And she didn’t realize how badly I needed them until right then, but that moment I always will remember that. And then the other reason is that my cousin has had lots of eye problems and ended up going blind in one eye. And I remember asking him to go to a 3D movie with me one time and he said, “I can’t because you need two eyes to see 3D.” And I loved 3D movies at that point so I felt so bad for him that he couldn’t see a 3D movie. And that was ... that kind of made me feel like I needed to fix people’s eyes.

 

Todd: That’s a great story. So you've wanted to be an eye doctor for some time?

 

Josh: Yeah, ever since I was basically six.

 

Todd: So are you doing things right now to help prepare yourself to get into college and become a doctor?

 

Josh: Absolutely, just I’ve researched the classes that I should take to be able to make it that far. And so I’m taking those classes and doing everything I can to get in that direction.

 

Todd: Oh wow, that’s great.

 

Josh: Looking at schools and everything.

 

Todd: Now, I think you mentioned that you’re actually taking online classes through MIT? And you're in high school.

 

Josh: Yeah, that’s right. I’m just looking at them, they’re free to do so you can watch the videos whichever ones you want. And they’re really interesting, the professors at MIT are really cool.

 

Todd: Well that’s great! So your parents must be really proud?

 

Josh: I don’t know about that, I hope so.

 

Todd: So do you have a fallback plan like if you were not able to become an eye doctor, would there be another profession you would be interested in?

 

Josh: Recently I’ve been looking at biomedical engineering as well.

 

Todd: What is that, biomedical engineering?

 

Josh: Biomedical engineering, well, it’s engineering like anything, so building things but with the biomedical part means that you build things that interact with the human body. So for example, the new Google’s goggles or glasses, those are actually developed partly by biomedical engineers who just help to create the fit and make sure they wouldn’t cause headaches or injuries or anything like that. And then also heart stents or any medical device like a heart rate monitor or a prosthetic, those are all made by biomedical engineers.

 

Todd: Oh wow, that sounds like an interesting field.

 

Josh: Yeah, for sure.

 

Todd: Well, good luck with your career, I hope it all pans out.

 

Josh: Thank you.