HOW ANIME TURNED ME INTO A PSYCHOLOGY STUDENT

August 31, 2008, Sunday. 12:58 AM.

At this time, I'm trying to finish making my notes for my Psychometrics class. While writing it down in my notebook, I listened to instrumental music pieces from "Detective Conan". As I wrote down the definitions of terms like concurrent validity and predictive validity, I started to think of how anime influenced me to become a psychology student.

When I was a kid, I had admired Dr. Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines. Hearing stories about how he was able to do a lot of things, not to mention his deep love for his country, made me idolize him as a kid. At one point, it even made me want to suffer (or, as I saw it before, enjoy) the same fate that he did on December 31, 1896, when he was executed through firing squad at Bagumbayan. As such, I wanted to be a doctor, simply because my idol was a doctor. This became my goal in my childhood years.

Things started to change when high school came. At this time, I had already become a fan of the "Detective Conan" series, and Conan became my new idol. Also, I hang out with several classmates who happen to be anime fans themselves. Thus, I became much more exposed to anime, and learned to become a fan of shows like "Rurouni Kenshin", "Hajime no Ippo", "Shaman King", and even "Boys Be". Also, my newfound love for anime caused me to join several anime websites, most particularly the website which you are visiting right now. At this point, though, I still wanted to be involved in the medical industry, but as a nurse due to the increasing demand of nurses at that time.

Then senior year came. Normally, students at this stage become confused as to what their career path would be, and I was no exception. At this point, things were starting to change drastically, and my exposure to anime had started to make its influence in my career path. At first I changed my goal to becoming a Criminology student so that I could be a crime fighter and case-solver like Conan. Later on, I realized that I was not prepared for the huge risks involved, so I scrapped it out. Then I wanted to become a teacher, partly because of the desire to be a really cool teacher like Great Teacher Onizuka, but with the added bonus of actually teaching the lessons to students and making them enjoy learning the lessons. But due to financial concerns regarding teachers' salary, I had to shift to another goal.

Then something hit me: Mass Communications. After years of being amazed at watching anime series and reading manga series, not to mention watching professional wrestling storylines, late-night talk shows from the United States and my desire to become a journalist, I decided that I wanted to be in this course. When the entrance exams came, I immediately applied for Linguistics and Literature.

After taking the exam, my parents showed some concern over my newfound career choice. Like the teaching career, being a Mass Communications graduate does not give much of a secure financial future. After asking me about what I would feed to my own family if I were to be a Mass Communications graduate (a question that still haunts me until now), I decided to go for a career that had a secure financial future. And so, I went back to Nursing.

At this point, I had finally lost my passion for Nursing or the whole medical profession in general. After being exposed to the greatness of Conan Edogawa and Kenshin Himura, I simply could not accept the idea of having myself as a Nursing graduate. I wanted to do more in my life than just being a nurse. I wanted to be able to work in a job that allows me to show my anime geekiness. But the financial future issue still kept bugging me. With much hesitation, I went out to take an entrance exam for the Nursing program.

Now I desperately wanted out of the Nursing program before it was too late. I wanted to find a course that gives me the chance to show my anime fandom to the whole world. A course that can give me a better chance of being involved in the anime and manga industry in whatever way, shape, or form. But that course should also be one that can give me a better chance of getting a job and earning money. And then, while browsing through the classified ads in the newspapers, I found Psychology.

I've began to notice how Psychology has become a silent yet hot career path around the country, especially in the human resources department. Other factors came into play, such as my old schoolmate shifting from the Nursing program to the Psychology program, my encounter with a guidance counsellor whom I did not like during the entrance exam, and my moments when some classmates asked me for advice on certain personal issues even though we didn't have a really close relationship. Unconsciously, I thought of how Psychology can be applied for careers involving the anime industry such as voice acting and story creation, as well as other media-related careers. I also thought unconsciously of one forum where I read that Conan is more likely to become a Psychology student once he turns back to Shinichi Kudo (Jimmy Kudo), and the possibility of being able to become involved in the crime-solving department with less risks. With all of those in mind, I decided my career path will now be Psychology.

And now here I am, three years later. Now I'm trying to look for the definition of the term synthetic validity. Aside from that, I'm also set to be interviewed for a job in the university newspaper. Now that I look back at it, I can really say that anime, especially the one with the smart eyeglass-wearing kid with a bowtie, has influenced me so much in my life that it even helped determine my career path. And despite all the mumbo-jumbo that Psychology gives to me, I'm happy that this is where my career path is right now. Although I have plans of taking up a self-financed second course in the Mass Communications or Secondary Education program so that I can fulfill my other anime-inspired dreams, I'm still glad that I'm not a Nursing student.

August 31, 2008, Sunday. 1:56 AM. Time for me to continue my research and get some sleep.