Over the past year, I had the opportunity to meet several physician assistants. In addition, I also had the chance to shadow and interview Megan, a physician assistant at Dublin Methodist Hospital. She works in the Emergency Department there and I really enjoyed shadowing her and getting to know more about the career. The first thing I learned during my time with Megan was how important it is to obtain as many direct patient care hours as possible prior to applying to PA school. Since this interview, I have been looking and applying for several jobs to start collecting my hours. Next, we talked about what classes are needed for PA school. She remembers that it was confusing at times deciding what classes to take since each PA school has different requirements; however, she did recommend to try to take as many as possible so that I will have more options when it comes time to apply. Furthermore, she talked about life as a PA in the Emergency Department. Since she just recently graduated from PA school, Megan loves this path because she likes how there is always a lot going on. With that being said, she also told me that the nice thing about being a physician assistant is that you can easily change to a different specialization if you feel that will fit better into your life. This was the first time I had heard of this, and it made me even more excited to pursue this career. At the end of the interview, I also asked her how many schools she recommended applying to. She said that the average is usually twelve schools and that it is never too early to start narrowing down which ones you think you want to apply to. Since this interview, I have made a spreadsheet of all the PA schools I am interested in as well as what courses are required for each so that I know I have a strong application. Lastly, this time with Megan was great because in addition to the interview, I also got to see a couple patients with her. I have always had an interest in the Emergency Department and this was a wonderful opportunity to see what life is like in this career path.