Our life milestones. Some of them are universal: graduations, marriages, divorces, births, and deaths. Some of them are personal, yet we think that everyone should celebrate with us. This just might be one of those stories. If you don't feel like joining in the celebration, that's okay, I get it. But as with everything I write, I hope that there is someone who can relate.
HB 382 would revise Schedule I controlled substance provisions. It would also revise supervisory and operational requirements for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and pharmacy interns and externs. #gapol #gasenate
— Georgia State Senate (@GASenatePress) March 31, 2026
Another one of those milestones that I didn't mention is job or career changes. It always seemed kind of silly to me that at 18 years old, someone should decide on a career they will work at for the rest of their life. Most people change quite a bit between 18 and their mid-life crisis. But on the other side of that coin, I was always a little envious of those who knew from the time they were little kids what they wanted to be, and then went out and did it.
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In my former pre-RedState life, I was a Pharmacy Technician. On May 31, my state tech license will expire. This year, I have chosen not to renew it. The right-off-the-bat good part is that I save the 40 bucks to renew it. But it's a decision that has really brought a flood of memories and thoughts about what I have learned along the way.
I started working in pharmacy in 1987. I was in my 20s, and it seemed like my first "real" job. The first Pharmacist I worked with, Carl, was an older man. He was a really sweet guy, and easy to work with. He took me under his wing, and really taught me the ins and outs of retail pharmacy. It only took three years to figure out that retail and people were not for me.
My next job was at a local hospital. That's where my love for working second shift began. You can sleep in and schedule doctor or car appointments. But the important part, getting off at 11 o'clock, still puts you in prime time for a social life. I definitely took advantage of that. I made lifelong friends there, or so I thought, until one of them felt that, in her moral superiority, she just could not tolerate a conservative, Trump-supporting friend. But I also met my husband there.
Graduates of Bachelor in Pharmacy [Pharmacists] have deep knowledge in pharmacology and pathology of diseases, Why as a country don’t we allow them to see and manage patients like MOs and COs do?
— Genesis (@Genesismwanzo1) May 23, 2026
Why don’t we leave the dispensing role to Pharm Techs?
I worked in Home Health for a while. My first taste of getting up in the morning with the rest of the world. There is no set quitting time in Home Health. When work comes in, it must be done. My last pharmacy job was at another local hospital, a level one trauma center that was twice as big as the first. There, I refined my IV room techniques and also made chemo. I learned pediatric compounding, which was interesting and fun. I was laid off in May of 2020, just as COVID was taking over our lives.
Stories? Oh yeah...I got stories. The best one, I'm not sure actually happened or was a bit of urban legend. The first hospital I worked at had a 10-bed ICU when I began working there. There were curtains over the doorways to the rooms for fast access. The story goes that a nurse went into a patient's room. The patient was originally from somewhere in the Caribbean. The nurse walks in to find a family member in the room with a chicken doing some sort of voodoo ritual over the patient. (I assume the chicken was dead...but you never know.)
I am also well-versed on why they set soap operas in hospitals. Everybody knows your business, especially if it involves another employee. But on the other side of that coin, how the entire second shift kept it a secret that my former friend, a nurse by the way, and a few others got me a stripper at the local watering hole that we all went to after work for my 27th birthday, I'll never know.
But all that aside, I am so glad I got to watch being a pharmacy tech evolve from being not much to a respected profession that requires certification and licensure. I learned how valuable teamwork is, and how bad things can be when you don't have that. I learned to pay attention to details. They matter. I learned that it is good, if possible, to have a skill you can take with you wherever you go. So, now I take my 16 years (really?) of political writing, a degree I worked my butt off for that I am so proud of myself for having achieved. And when someone asks me what I do for a living, it's been a long road, but I get to tell them, I'm a writer, a journalist. And I get to do it with the most amazing bunch of people.
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So long, Pharmacy. You have been gratifying, infuriating, and always surprising. To all those just coming aboard, I would warn them that it is indeed all those things. But you will have an experience you will draw from for the rest of your life. And also, make sure you wear the sensible shoes, not the cute ones.
Pharmacy technicians have always been integral members of the pharmacy care team, and now, with health care growing more complex by the day and the national shortage of pharmacists showing no signs of abating, technicians are taking on expanded roles. https://t.co/R41tqXaNrw pic.twitter.com/9GP1qwRWkI
— American Pharmacists Association (@pharmacists) March 5, 2026
