Since leaving TASIS England in the summer of 1992, after three wonderful years of high school, I have pursued a carefully thought-out plan that did not lead where I expected. I went to Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia to pursue a career as a medical doctor. The most difficult decision I faced was whether to pick biology or chemistry as my major (I chose chemistry), as I had everything else more or less planned out.
However, a cradle Catholic who became increasing active in the Church during high school, I figured that it was only fair to give God a shot at me as well. So I made a deal. God had until the end of my junior year - because I had to know whether or not to take the MCAT - to tell me if I was to be a priest; otherwise I would go on to get married and become a wonderful doctor. While I didn't get a burning bush or a booming voice from heaven, I did have an irrepressible urge to be in church and to serve at the alter. At the same time in my life, I also met a truly wonderful and beautiful woman. She was everything I could ever ask for in a wife, and I wanted to marry her. Talk about mixed signals!
In the end, I lacked sufficient data to confirm my desire to enter the seminary, and though I loved this woman, I found I was not able to give her my whole heart. As I proceeded through college, I became convinced that medicine was not for me and graduated from college with a revised plan: I was now going to be a college chemistry professor. I headed off to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and whole-heartedly pursued my chemistry PhD in the exciting new chemical biology division. Though open to dating, the life of a chemistry graduate student left me few opportunities to leave the lab, and while I was active in the Church, attending weekly mass and volunteering, becoming a priest was no longer part of my plan.
Instead, four years into my doctorate, I was waiting for a meeting to start when at last I had my call. Suddenly, and with absolute certainty and peace, I knew exactly what God wanted for me for my life: to be a Dominican priest. The only problem was that I didn't know what a Dominican was, except for a person from the island in the Caribbean. I searched the term 'Dominican' on Google the next day and found it referred to the Roman Catholic Order of Preachers. So much for being a chemistry professor! I finished my research, wrote my thesis (X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy Investigation of Zinc Metallproteins and Enzymes), and abandoned yet another life plan to enter the Order of Preachers in the summer of 2003.
My life has changed greatly since entering the Order of Preachers. I took a new name and now known as Brother Patrick Tobin O.P. I take classes outside of the hard science for the first time in my adult life (philosophy and theology are actually interesting!), including Spanish, first begun at TASIS England with Mrs. Stiles, and I now preach in Spanish to Latinos. Perhaps most amazingly, through preaching and teaching I am helping people in their journey to God.
This article first appeared in the TASIS England Today magazine, Autumn 2007 issue.