I’ve been babysitting since I was 11, and teaching preschool and after school programs since I was 16.  It always makes me feel really old to see kids I used to teach way back when, now all grown up and going to college.

I recently ran into the mother of two boys I used to babysit for — the first family I ever babysat regularly for, in fact.  I asked how the boys were doing, and I guess the youngest one — now in his early twenties — is completing a radiography program.  He’s going to work in the health and medical industry.

I guess this is a pretty big industry now, because I’m hearing a lot about it.  Quite a few people I know work as nurses or medical assistants, and I know that the hospitals near me have some pretty severe shortages, because they’re always advertising for more nurses and other personnel.

I gather that a lot of schools offer medical career programs now.  Sanford Brown is probably the name I’ve heard the most.  The Sanford Brown Institute Jacksonville campus offers programs such as massage therapy, cardiovascular sonography, and medical assistant training.  The Sanford Brown Institute Tampa campus offers the same programs plus a few others: dental assistant training, medical billing and coding, and surgical technology, for example.

It’s amazing to hear about this young man doing so well.  I remember him as a 6-year-old boy — in fact, I still can’t picture him as an adult and a college school student.  Trying to imagine it makes me feel old!

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