Tae’Vionna Jones plans to study cosmetology.
Courtesy Tae’Vionna Jones
Tae’Vionna Jones, 20, spent a semester at college and decided it wasn’t for her — for now.She worked as a phlebotomist, drawing blood in a clinic, after going through a training program.Jones is interested in psychology but for now plans to study hair care.
This is an as-told-to essay based on an interview with Tae’Vionna Jones, 20, who lives in Kansas City, Missouri. She recently worked as a phlebotomist, a person trained to draw blood. She tried college and decided it’s not for her — yet — and plans to focus for now on another passion of hers: styling hair. The story has been edited for length and clarity.
My main reason for really choosing phlebotomy was because my grandma has leukemia and my sister passed from leukemia. So platelet donors — and blood donors period — just make me smile. Saving lives every day.
I don’t have a car. That sometimes made it too difficult to get there. I was penalized a lot because I had to Uber and some days Ubers were too expensive. Recently, I injured my foot and I was told I couldn’t return to work unless I bought a closed-toe boot. I couldn’t afford a closed-toe boot. That was the last straw.
I decided that I should try something different even though I still like healthcare. With phlebotomists, they don’t get paid as much as they deserve. We save a lot of lives and we get paid nothing.
For now, my plan is to go to hair school. Cosmetology didn’t come out of the blue. I’ve been doing hair since I was 12. Right now I’m trying to find myself — figure out what I want to do.
College wasn’t for me — yet
I did go to college for a semester. I went for nursing and psychology. I liked the school, but it was financially not for me. I got COVID my second week of school. They had made me sit out for two weeks because I was going for nursing. They did not want me in the labs. So I missed too much school and FAFSA couldn’t pay for it. So basically they had returned the loans and I had to pay for it in order to go back to school. That was my main reason for coming back home.
I also needed something more hands-on. At college, I felt like I was back in high school again, and I wanted to just jump out there in the field. So I came back home and got in touch with a local nonprofit because I’ve been hearing about it and I knew that they had programs for me for the health field.
I can kind of dig needles and veins
I had seen that they were doing phlebotomy and I was like, “Well, I can kind of dig needles and veins. I guess I can do this.”
I had to do training. Then I had to practice taking blood so I did my family and whoever I could find. It was hard, but I did it. It was harder on me than my family because my family was scared. They were being little punks, really. They didn’t want me to do it. It was more so the men.
My family inspired me to be in the healthcare field. I’m not necessarily just stuck on just being a nurse. Really it’s just to help people. That’s my main reason. I’ve recently learned about sterile technicians. I didn’t know anything about that until TikTok. They actually get paid a lot. Nobody really knows about that job and all you’re doing is cleaning instruments.
I was pretty young — about middle school — when I decided I wanted to be in healthcare because I have a lot of family in the field. I had to basically help my mom take care of my grandma. She was in her sicker days, and she started to get Alzheimer’s. So that made me want to take care of other people’s grandmas and help more.
I want to save up before I go back to college
I still have thoughts about going to college. Because although there were things that I didn’t like about it, there were a lot of things that I did like about college life — not just the parties. I did enjoy the socializing and I actually met new people. Because in high school, I wasn’t really social. So college got me to kind of open up a little bit. And I was open to joining sororities and clubs and all types of things. It’s still something I want to do.
Tae’Vionna Jones.
Courtesy Tae’Vionna Jones
I feel like I want to save up first and be stable enough to go.
A lot of people my age — out of just my graduating class — a lot of them did come back home from college. I’m not sure what all of their reasons were. But I know they all felt like it wasn’t for them in some way. I just feel like a lot of young people really don’t know what we want to do. So we just kind of go based off of what people tell us, and then we find out for ourselves that that’s not what we want.
I’ve had other jobs that I didn’t always like. I worked in an Amazon warehouse. I did enjoy the fact that I had to keep to myself and I didn’t really have to socialize with anybody. I could just listen to my music, work at my own pace. But eventually the labor got tiring, and I did have to pull a lot of 12-hour shifts, and it was really just repetitive to me.
What I liked about phlebotomy was it’s not repetitive. I met new people all the time. Everybody’s different. No donor is the same. People have different veins. People react differently. They may not get to donate that day. Blood sugar might be too high, too low. Something may be wrong with them — anything.
I minored in psychology when I did that semester. I think that’s the route that I would want to go. I’d like to do therapy and counseling — giving people advice.
There’s a lot of surprising things that happen in the healthcare field. I think that’s what I liked the most. I like the shock. Because I’m a “Grey’s Anatomy” girl. I like the ER vibes and the running and yelling and crazy chaos.