第一幕:舞台变暗
它发生在一天漫长的排练的最后阶段. Gianna Franco was in 11th grade at Talent Unlimited High School in Manhattan and part of the teen ensemble of the Paul Taylor Dance Company. A natural talent pursuing her calling, she never thought twice about her next step.
经过15年的舞蹈训练，她的每一个动作都流畅流畅. 未来? 她可能会再跳15年舞, 只要她能, 然后像成熟舞者那样转向相关的能量场, 教学或许. 那里还有什么?
“Dance was the only thing that made me feel confident,佛朗哥说. “My love for the art was in the ability to turn everything off and just feel. 这是一次真正自由的经历.”
Franco, whose mother had also danced, cannot remember when she started. 在她最早的记忆出现之前，舞蹈就是她生活的一部分.
在中学的时候，它变成了“严重的事情”. 到了高中，她花了很长时间在她的手艺上. 她的课程包括舞蹈, 还有数学, 英语, social studies and chemistry; once the school day ended, rehearsals with the professional troupe would run late into the evening.
That night toward the end of her junior year, they were rehearsing a Paul Taylor dance called 散步路. Franco had fallen “madly in love” with Taylor’s choreography – the athleticism and the creation of beauty from pedestrian movements like running to the subway.
She was part of an all-female ensemble performing roles meant for both women and men, 包括头顶提升和其他力量的壮举. They were going over a series of moves that involved Franco running from a back corner of the huge Taylor stage to the front corner and jumping into other dancers’ arms.
“我正在全速奔跑，”她说. “我跳. 我被抓了一部分. And then as my partner loops around to let me go, I’m kind of flailing. 我滑了几英尺，最后撞上了墙.”
At first, with adrenaline coursing through her, she thought she was fine. 但是她不能用左腿站立. 她的左膝盖骨移位了. Months of physical therapy were not enough to get her back on the dance floor. 那时不会，永远不会. Her doctor said she would never again be able to withstand the vigor of professional dance.
“我唯一能与之相比的就是黑暗，”弗兰科说. “跳舞是唯一一次让我觉得自己已经足够了. 失去这一切真的让我质疑一切.”
第二幕:不可思议的光源
Franco’s recovery involved a lot of time at a 24-hour pharmacy superstore in Staten Island, 她长大的地方. She needed medication for pain, of course, and also for depression and anxiety. She was receiving therapy for both the physical and mental damage resulting from the fall.
It was at the superstore that she met a pharmacist named Lauren, then in her early 30s. 弗兰科第一次去拿她的药, 劳伦把她带到咨询室半个小时. 弗兰科至今还记得这件事，心里有些惊讶, as the store was bustling and there was perhaps one other pharmacist there.
After that initial session, Lauren called Franco every week to check in. As Franco went through different medications and dosing to counter various side effects, Lauren asked about Franco’s pain levels and mood and her experience of the medications’ effectiveness. 在佛朗哥大四的某个时候, their bond had become tight enough that Lauren began asking Franco personal questions. 她是谁?? 她的计划是什么?? 弗兰科向劳伦讲述了她的故事.
“这就像一个创伤垃圾场，”佛朗哥说. “和她在一起我觉得很安全. 她真是一盏明灯.”
听完后，劳伦问道:“你考虑过从医吗?”
佛朗哥解雇了她. 尽管她和劳伦关系很好, 佛朗哥把药剂师看作是卖药的——而这并不适合她. “我想给人们带来欢乐，我想表演，”她说. But then her mother shared that she had once been a pharmacy technician, 佛朗哥有几个亲戚是药剂师. 弗兰科很惊讶，她一直把这个想法放在脑后. 她甚至跟着劳伦工作.
有一天出去喝咖啡, Franco and her pharmacist-turned-friend Lauren discussed a variety of roles that pharmacists can play – they participate in patient care in hospitals, 例如, 并为药品制造商进行研究. Franco began to think of pharmacy as a field with wide-open possibilities. Then watching an episode of “Law and Order” one night with her mother, she became intrigued about working with patients in psychiatric facilities.
“You can still bring joy to people,” Franco remembers Lauren telling her. “你会让他们感觉更好. 你要帮助他们痊愈.”
第三幕:一个混乱，然后一个新的开始
于是佛朗哥决定从医. But she was behind in all the things a high school senior must complete to be accepted into college – applications, 校园参观, 面试. She moved fast, scheduled a couple of tours a weekend for three weekends running. 她日程上的最后一个地方是奥尔巴尼的药学院.
She arrived when upstate New York is arguably at its worst – a rainy day in the heart of spring mud season – and spent nearly three hours touring a large campus waiting for the attraction she’d come to see. Tired and a little frustrated at tour’s end, she finally asked about the pharmacy school. 她在奥尔巴尼大学的导游们都很困惑. 你是说奥尔巴尼药学与健康科学学院吗? 那不是我们，他们告诉她.
佛朗哥迅速致电ACPHS，联系上了凯莉·奎因, who is now the senior associate registrar but at the time worked in the admissions office. There was some kind of event on campus that day – an open house, maybe – but it was wrapping up. 佛朗哥发疯了. Quinn told her to take a deep breath; come to ACPHS anyway; Quinn would wait for her.
尽管弗朗哥刚刚参观了那么多地方, 奎因是她第一个面对面的招生顾问. 突然有东西响了.
“She immediately reminded me of Lauren – just like that,佛朗哥说.
然后奎恩做了一件让弗兰科觉得特别的事. 她花时间和她在一起，并没有试图向她推销ACPHS. 和劳伦一样，奎因也对弗兰科的未来提出了建议. 为什么药店? 她觉得自己在5年、10年后会做什么? 令佛朗哥吃惊的是, thinking about the future made it clear that pharmacy was the right field for her.
佛朗哥说:“这么久以来，我第一次感到有点头晕。.
弗朗哥离开的时候说她会再来一次真正的旅行. 但她不需要这么做. 她申请了ACPHS，决定入学.
“我感到安全，感到舒适，感到兴奋, 我已经好几个月没有这种感觉了,佛朗哥说.
第四幕:再次流畅的运动
她确实被药学博士项目录取了. She trudged through the first two years of rigorous classroom and laboratory instruction, she said. 怀疑起来. She had never had to read textbooks and take good notes before; she credits her roommate Katy Carron ’22 for showing her how.
Her saving grace was working every other weekend with Lauren at the pharmacy in Staten Island.
佛朗哥说:“这让我觉得我在做正确的事情。. “Every time I got an insurance claim to go through that we thought wasn’t going to work, 这让我感觉很好, 好像我走对了路.”
In her pharmacy professional years, things started to come together. 她喜欢技能训练——计算, 解释医生的医嘱, 了解非处方药, 亲身体验，感觉就像在真正的药房.
她的动作又变得流畅起来. 就像保罗·泰勒(Paul Taylor)的舞蹈一样，平凡的人感觉非凡.
佛朗哥说:“我了解到我喜欢为病人提供咨询. “我喜欢这样的互动.”
今年春天, 佛朗哥被一个竞争激烈的住院医师项目录取了, 在新泽西州蒙茅斯医疗中心, which she will start after graduating with her pharmacy doctorate in May. She hopes afterward to complete a second-year residency to specialize in forensic pharmacy, a psychiatric specialization that deals with litigation and the criminal justice system.
当她回头看, 佛朗哥认为劳伦, Quinn and even her roommate Carron were among her most important choreographers.
“The people who came into my life at really pivotal points were literally guiding me – hey turn there, 继续, 现在好了, 这种方式,”她说。.
“我觉得我又开始跳舞了，尽管我不会.”
