Kim Wilkins had a science degree, but decided to retrain as an acupuncturist
“I think I’m like a lot of people, you go to high school and you basically just do what you’re good at. I was good at science, so when I left school I found myself at Massey in Palmerston North doing a Bachelor of Science in Physiological and Molecular Plant Biology. I didn’t end up enjoying it. I think I was just a bit too young and not clued up at all about what I wanted to study and what I wanted to do.
“On finishing I realised I didn’t like the idea of being stuck in a lab. Plus, with science degrees you just have to do so many more years of postgrad study to be able to really get a good job. So the story of my science degree was that I never actually used it!
“I worked as a receptionist after graduating, earning money for my 18-month OE. I knew when I was overseas that when I got back to New Zealand I was going to have to retrain. There was no point doing something I didn’t like so I thought long and hard about what I was interested in.
“I’d had dreams when I was younger of being a doctor or an osteopath so I was thinking along those lines. Then my mum said to me, ‘What about acupuncture?’ She had been to see an acupuncturist for the first time and had really good results.
“At the time I thought it was crazy, I was a very scientific-brained sort of person and was sceptical. But my time overseas had opened my mind and my perceptions and my ideas had changed a lot.
“I found a book on acupuncture and read it in two straight days and I thought, ‘Yeah, this makes sense to me’. I started emailing my mother’s acupuncturist for advice and she really helped me make the decision.
“I enrolled at the New Zealand School of Acupuncture and haven’t looked back since.
“A lot of people have the problem I had, in not knowing what to do when you leave school. You think ‘I’m not really interested in anything’, and you can feel quite depressed when you try one thing and it doesn’t work out. But keep looking and have an open mind. You’ll know when you come across the right thing and the wait will be worth it.”
