Six years ago as a college junior I encountered one of those proverbial forks in the road of my life and decided to switch my undergraduate major from biochemistry and pre-medicine to studio art. I endured a lot of head scratches, raised eyebrows, and unavoidable comments like, “What the hell are you going to do with a degree in art?” The hardest part of it all was that I still identified with the math and science crowd just as much as I felt at home with the creatives, and I feared that my decision may have been too hasty, or worse, the wrong one altogether.

Never in my life did I imagine these worlds colliding—art and medicine were on opposite ends of the career spectrum, or so I thought. Well, tomorrow it all comes full circle as I embark on a new adventure with RxArt, an organization that stole my heart years ago with its mission to transform cold, sterile hospitals and outpatient centers with vibrant contemporary art. From Ryan McGinness’s colorful iconography throughout the NYU Child Study Center to the Jeff Koons-designed MRI machine to be unveiled in Chicago, RxArt works with some of the biggest names in the art world to metamorphose health care facilities into welcoming environments that become existing proof of the healing power of art.

The moral of this story? Paths are carved with choices, and second guessing is wasted energy, because even the “wrong” ones right themselves eventually.

Check out RxArt’s website here and a fabulous feature article in the New York Times Magazine here.

image via rxart.net