For those of us who didn't turn in Scantron bidding sheets for corporate recruiting last Thursday, who haven't been jetting off to have medical school interviews, who aren't ready to jump into the career track now and who hope that when we do start our careers we won't sell out to The Man: a heartening story.

Meet Dr. Nancy E. Oriol, associate dean for student affairs and assistant professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School (HMS), co-director of obsetric anesthesia at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, inventor of devices to resuscitate newborns and analyze fetal heart rates, founder and co-director of The Family Van and respected researcher.

No question, Oriol is successful, but her path was rather unconventional.

Though Oriol knew she wanted to be a doctor eventually, her plans upon graduation from Boston University in 1967 did not involve medical school. Because Oriol's father died early in her undergraduate years, she had to shorten her time as a student to be able to pay for her tuition. After finishing college in three years, Oriol confesses, "I was tired and I knew I wouldn't be a good student."

"I asked myself, `What was I interested in?'" Oriol says. Deciding that she wanted to know more about child and developmental psychology, Oriel took a position as a counselor at a state hospital's adolescent ward as her first post-college job.

With a cheering bit of idealism, Oriol explains, "I wasn't worried about the end of the career at the beginning. I chose to do what felt good and what I could grow in."

She then went on to be an apprentice teacher at an elementary school, a construction worker and a mother. Then, after all of this, she decided she wanted to enroll in Harvard Medical School (HMS).

It was only seven years after graduation, she says, that "the concept of being a medical school student for four years and being an intern for four years--the process as well as the goal--looked attractive." As a result, she spent two years at the University of Massachusetts at Boston fulfilling all of her pre-med requirements, except for organic chemistry, which she completed at Harvard Summer School.

Because she had taken time to do other things, she was able to put life as a student in perspective. It was "empowering," Oriol says, to enter HMS after "working in the real world."

But once Oriol received her HMS diploma, her sincere desire to help neighborhoods did not dissolve. Though the response of many newly-annointed doctors who are staggering under years of debt might be to give up their plans to work in poor neighborhoods for virtually no pay, Oriol still pursued her ideals. After years of working with residents in the neighborhoods, Oriol got rolling The Family Van, a mobile healthcare and education center bringing health and social services to Boston's urban communities.

At the Women's Leadership Conference this past September where I met Dr. Oriol, she dispensed this advice: "At each intersection, you have to decide, `What do I want to do?' It might not look great, but that's okay. Don't be afraid to fail."

When I talked to her last week, she added that "you have to be willing to take risks because that's not the end of your life. It might be the beginning of it."

Indeed, Oriol realizes that her unconventional route encourages students to be more open to roads less frequently taken. "One student working with me said the one thing I gave her was a sense that long-range planning can hurt you."

"Certainly being strategic is good," she says, "but you also have to be receptive to the moment, be flexible, listen to what your heart is saying, and look at yourself with honesty." Differentiate between what you want and what others want, advises Oriol.

Yes, Harvard students, it is still possible to do something you like--you don't need to feel compelled to chain yourself to an investment banker's desk after graduation.

Of course, Oriol admits that today's world is different from the world of the late '60s. In the late '90s, we probably eye her "listen to your heart" advice with some suspicion. Sure, a pressure exists, especially at Harvard, to go into professions that will make the hefty Harvard tuition worth the expense.

But even if students are more cynical these days, Oriol does find today's world more accepting of alternative career choices. These days, she says, "it's more flexible."

Still, it seems to me, being at ground zero in the life-decision-making process, there is a lot of anxiety--as if to get where I want to be in 30 years entails jumping into an established track right out of college. Every time I see relatives or parents' friends I inevitably have to take a stab at the What-are-you-doing-after-college question.

I am, of course, envious of those who know exactly how to get where they want to go, but what about people who have yet to settle on anything definite?

Okay, so you forgot to list some companies on your Scantron sheet, had trouble printing out your resume or messed up the MCATs. If Oriol's example means anything, though, it's that it's not the end of the world. We're young, right? We're still at a point where we can start new things. Jia-Rui Chong '99 is a history and literature concentrator in Kirkland House. Her column appears on alternate Mondays.