NSUCO - The Visionary Spring 2012

THE V ISIONARY • S PRING 2012 — 14 The road to professional fulfillment is something we all occasion- ally stumble on as we progress from the relative safety of college to confront the myriad challenges that come with cultivating a career. For some, the proverbial climb up the professional ladder occurs seamlessly. However, for others, it’s a much more arduous ascent replete with setbacks and self-doubt. The latter scenario certainly epitomized what Arnie Patrick, O.D., assistant professor of optometry, dealt with as he attempted to make a career change in his late 30s while combatting the debili- tating effects of chronic fatigue syndrome. FROM HISTORY TO OPTOMETRY As a child growing up in Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Patrick never imag- ined himself becoming an esteemed optometrist. In fact, when it came time for him to choose a major as a student about to attend Brooklyn College in the early 1970s, he selected an extremely un- optometric one: history. “My story is inexorably tied to that of my best friend, Bruce Consor O.D., who is a graduate of NSUCO,” he explained. “Bruce and I met when we were about 10 years old and attended the same junior and senior high schools, as well as college. “He found that his biology degree had little value, so his brothers, both of whom were opticians at the time, suggested he return to school and train as one himself,” Dr. Patrick added. “With a degree in history, no one was knocking at my door with a job offer either, so I followed Bruce to New York City Community College, where I earned an A.A.S. degree in Ophthalmic Dispensing in 1977. Although I chose the profession for practical reasons, I was surprised to find I had a great passion for it.” Because his first few jobs working as an optician in New York in- volved interacting exclusively with optometrists, he quickly devel- oped a significant interest in what they did. “Although optometry’s scope of practice was limited at this time, I nonetheless found it fascinating and thought it might be something I’d like to pursue in the future,” he stated. “After moving to Dallas, Texas, in 1978, I worked mostly with ophthalmologists. Medical eye care was even more fascinating than optometry, so I considered pursuing a ca- reer in it as well.” By 1985, Dr. Patrick had grown increasingly bored with the retail as- pects of opticianry, so he visited the University of Houston College of Optometry (UHCO) campus to investigate what undergraduate courses he would need to complete to qualify for admission. “Be- cause the number of courses I needed to take was extensive, I de- cided to wait until I was fully committed,” he said. “However, during my trip to the school, I learned just howmuch optometry’s scope of practice had grown and realized this would indeed be the right path for me.” A LIFE IN SOUTH FLORIDA BECKONS Several years later, a confluence of occurrences would alter his life perceptibly—a relocation to South Florida in 1987 followed by an unexpectedly humorous incident at his opticianry job in North Miami Beach. “I moved to South Florida to be closer to my parents, Getting to Know… the Inimitable By Scott Colton, B.A., APR Co-Editor, The Visionary Dr. Arnie Patrick