u/Hot_Abies1678

Hi everyone. I’m 17 from Texas and I’ve wanted to become a forensic pathologist since I was around 7 years old. This is genuinely my dream career, and I’m finally trying to seriously start pursuing it. I graduated high school early at 15 with a 3.6 GPA. After that, I took a gap year because honestly I felt overwhelmed and didn’t have much support from my parents at the time. Recently they’ve become more supportive, so now I’m trying to get back on track. Right now I’m taking medical billing classes and working toward that certification while figuring out my next steps.
The problem is that I’m really anxious and confused about where to begin. I know forensic pathology requires a very long path through college, medical school, residency, etc., but I would really appreciate advice from people actually in the field.

What steps should I take next starting from where I am now?
What major would you recommend in college?
Is there anything you wish you knew before entering pathology or forensic pathology?
And realistically, what should someone my age focus on first?
What books, shows, documentaries, anatomy kits/models, flashcards, apps, YouTube channels, or other study tools do y’all recommend that I can start using now?

Also, please be as specific as possible with recommendations because I have ADHD and I struggle a lot with vague advice or trying to figure things out without details 😭 Specific names of resources or study methods would seriously help me so much.
Thank you guys for reading. This career means a lot to me, and posting this is honestly my first real step toward the goal!

Okay I need honest advice because I don’t want people to just assume I’m being dumb I actually kindaaaa like him.

So I’ve been talking to this guy (I’ll call him Noah). We went to the same high school—he was a senior when I was a freshman, so there’s a small age gap but nothing crazy to me.

We’re not officially together, but we both like each other and have talked about maybe becoming something.

The thing is… we’ve never even gone on a date.

We barely see each other because:

I’m busy with work

he’s in college and doing YouTube w his friends

So everything has been really slow burn and mostly online.

Another thing is I didn’t even know at first, but he’s kind of known online. His best friend is bigger on TikTok/YouTube, and Noah is in a lot of his videos. I literally found out by accident because I saw a meme with his face and sent it to him, and he was like “yeah that’s me 😭.”

I’m not talking to him for that at all, but now I get in my head about it because I don’t want him thinking I’m using him or social climbing.

He’s actually really sweet. Like I genuinely don’t think he has bad intentions. He compliments me, supports my goals, comments on my stuff, and we even share locations, so there is a level of trust there.

And I’m not gonna lie… he’s VERY handsome. Like I get why girls make edits of him 😭

But here’s where I get confused:

He talks about the future A LOT. Like saying he wants to marry me after college, that I’m “wife material,” that I cook/clean/take care of kids, that I’m “very mature for my age,” and that I’m his dream wife.

But… we haven’t even gone on one date.

Also personality-wise, I feel like we’re opposites. I’m really hyper, talkative, and have a big personality, and he’s super calm, quiet, and hard to read. Sometimes he feels really genuine, but other times he feels kind of like an “empty shell,” and I wish he had more personality or showed more depth.

He also struggles with an addiction, and we’ve talked about trying to be sober together, which made me feel closer to him—but I don’t know if that’s actually a healthy way to connect.

So now I’m stuck feeling like:

I actually really like him

I don’t think he’s a bad person

but something feels off and I can’t fully explain it

Am I overseeing this, or are these things I should actually pay attention to?

Growing up, I was raised in a very tight "religious" community. My family was part of Jehovah’s Witnesses, so our social circle was small, very structured, and mostly limited to people within the same “hall.” Because of that, everyone kind of knew each other, and families were closely connected. Yk how it goes , its rumors get around FAST! I know this sounds irrelevant but I need to give you backstory on this stuff.

When I was younger, my mom became friends with another woman, who I’ll call Sara. Around the same time, my mom also became close with another woman, Marian, who had a young son (6 yr) at the time, and was expecting another baby. I remember my family held her baby shower or gender reveal at our house bc we have a pretty huge house so my mom offered our house for her event.(I was really young, so I don’t remember exactly which event). That event is important because it’s where everything kind of started.

Marian invited Sara to the event because they had previously been in the same friend group before Sara moving to our hall. Sara had two daughters, who I’ll call Ale (the older one) and Beck (the younger one). That’s how I met them thru this party im a week younger from Ale.

From the very beginning, Ale was different from other kids our age. We were around 7–10 years old, and while most kids were playful and open, she was very withdrawn, dry, and hard to talk to, mainly to me actually just to me. At the time, my mom believed I was the one that was too shy ( I was a very shy child but I know 100% I wasn't with Ale), and My mom had a rule that I HAD to go up and talk to people because otherwise it was considered disrespectful. So even though I felt uncomfortable, I would force myself to go up to Ale and try to be her friend. Every time I tried, she would avoid me, hide from me, or act rude. Stuff like hide inside a closet and stay on her iPad and be on her headphones but as soon as I would leave, she will go out and play with the other kids. She just really didn't like me . May I add I'm not shaming her looks but ever since I met her she was obese. I'm not fat phobic but this is the truth and it's important to this. However I remember feeling really embarrassed because I was putting myself out there and getting rejected, but I didn’t have a choice because if I didn’t try, I would get in trouble with my mom.

The only person I naturally got along with was her younger sister, Beck. She was sweet, and we connected easily. As time went on, Ale and I somehow became close but not in a healthy way. It was more like a cycle of being best friends and then falling out constantly. We were what most ppl call frenemies. I would introduce her to my friends, and she would end up taking them or turning them against me. I didn’t even mind at first because I knew she struggled socially, and I wanted to help her. The truth is, I always treated her with respect. Even though she was only a week older than me, I treated her like someone I needed to take care of. I valued our friendship and always tried to be there for her.

But she would constantly do stuff like:

• Talk badly about me behind my back
• Try to turn my friends against me
• Say things about me that weren’t true
• Talk negativity about my family even though my family gave her family everything.

Every time I found out and confronted her, it would turn into a bigger situation. She would go to her parents and tell them that I was the one being mean to her ; even accusing me of calling her fat, which I didn’t do except for one time when I was younger and reacted out of anger after she insulted me first. I later apologized for that because I knew it was wrong whether who insulted who first .

Her parents, especially her mom, were very aggressive and always took her side no matter what. That caused arguments between our families multiple times. Both of my parents have always been very calm people they never get into problems. However Ale's family has had problems and drama, the reason why they even move to our hall was because they ghosted everyone in their old hall and moved because they got in a really bad problem, so they just got other stuff and moved to our hall and repeated the same story again but with us and now their daughter is the problem too.

This wasn’t a one-time thing. This was a pattern that repeated for years , like 7 times IN JUST ONEE year:

• We become close
• She slowly starts talking bad about me
• I find out
• I tell her its not nice.
• Parents get involved
• We stop talking
• She comes back crying, apologizing
• I forgive her

And then the cycle repeats. Over time, I started recognizing this pattern. I even began giving her “space breaks” between our friendships because I noticed that when we were too close for too long, that’s when she would start acting mean again.

Despite everything, I genuinely loved her. I saw her as family. and to be completely honest, I still love her. I saw her like my sister. I loved her and her family . man, We were going to plan OUR graduation party together. She would come to my house all the time, sleep over, and even call my grandparents “grandma” and “grandpa.” She called my aunts her aunts. My family accepted her completely. Even though they knew how she was because they knew that I cared about her and I was stupid to take her back each time so I could take accountability for that. She would also constantly talk badly about other people — including her own parents — and my family and I would always tell her that wasn’t okay because we’re not like that. and how that negative words that come out of your mouth come into our life. We've always tried to be a positive light for everyone around us and so we try to do the same thing for Ale .Another thing that always stood out is that when people would bully her or talk badly about her, I would defend her every time. I never let anyone disrespect her.But when people talked badly about me, she would join them. The thing is, she was the one to give them that path to talk about me because she was the one that would start it I caught her doing that multiple times. That was one of the biggest differences between us.

Then something happened that changed everything. I've always known that she's been a little bit unhinged, but that was my sister in a way .however about two years ago, I was talking to a guy I liked (I’ll call him Alex). Out of nowhere, he told me we had to stop talking because he thought I was talking to another guy (Pablo). I was confused because I didn’t even really know that person. Alex showed me messages — messages that looked like they were from me!!

Around this time, My family owns a state company and I work in it and I'll started working with me there. She started being problems and she ended up getting fired, however around the time. That she was still working there a hurricane came and she was logging into her Instagram through my phone a couple weeks past and then I get a notification from a guy named Pablo ( same Pablo) and he used to go to my high school which I found weird because I've only talked to him like a couple times because we both had the same dealer, but that was the extent of our relationship so it looked like it was a continuous conversation and I was like what and I go ahead and click on it and it shows like a bunch of DM's on Instagram of me and him talking and I'm like I'm not texting this guy like I don't know who this is and so I just kind of get out of there and I'm like oh it's probably Ale because I was still logged into her account that I forgot and I've never been the nosy type to go into people's business so I was just like oh let me get out. This is weird because how does she know him like she doesn't even go to school like we both already graduated. Like, how does she know this person? We don't even live in the same area but I was like oh maybe just a coincidence you know and I just put it aside and I don't go back to it, but this was the same Pablo that Alex told me about saying that I was talking with, but I wasn't so I was like when I got home I told Alex about it and he was like look back at those messages because that's weird that ale's texting him. When I click on the account it actually snooped around . I wish I did it because I found out that the account that she was texting Pablo from was a catfish account of me and she only followed guys from my high school and would talk to them and send them nudes, pretending to be me. MAY I ALSOOOO add that these are people from high school that had girlfriends!!! so you could imagine how many girlfriends were at my throat, thinking that I was the one sending the boyfriend nudes and all this stuff. And I was like oh it's ale another thing that I could prove it was her was that me and her went to a trip and she took a picture with me and she sent it to Pablo around the time. She was still working and she was like oh I'm going to Mexico and it was like a picture of a plane, but she was not. She was right in front of me so she was just lying to all of these guys left and right I've always been too scared to confront her, but she was literally CRAZY ,She had even taken pictures from my phone and sent them to herself so she could use them on that fake account.

I never confronted her. Because I never thought that it was gonna go that far and I was in shock so I sucked it up and I told my parents, but I knew it was her. I had the proof because I've gone into her phone one day when she was away in the bathroom at work and there was all the evidence I remember I felt my stomach drop to my ass.

I remember testing her once by casually bringing up the name of one of the guys, and she acted like she knew him — even though she had no connection to my school or those people. That confirmed everything for me.

At the time, I was already in a very depressed state, and I didn’t have the energy or strength to deal with it. So I stayed quiet.

What hurt the most was that she would sit there while I was crying over the situation, pretending to comfort me, saying things like “we’ll find out who did this,” when it was literally her the entire time.

Eventually, we drifted apart again.

After that, I met a new group of friends:

• Samuel
• Jace
• Vence
• Aaron

We all became really close. Each of us had strong bonds:

• Aaron was closest to Samuel
• Jace was closest to his best friend (outside the group imma call him chino)
• I was closest to Ale (also out the drop)

I eventually brought A. into this group too once and a while I invited her to most of my events with this friend group because I knew she struggled socially, and my mom told me too at the time.

At first, everything was good. But then things started falling apart again.

Aaron started acting strange. He would go to each of us individually and talk badly about the others, trying to create problems between us. He especially targeted me because he had an interest in me, even though I made it clear I wasn’t interested. At the same time, there were other tensions happening in the group involving relationships, rumors, and outside friendships. Mainly because of the whole Jehovah witnesses spreading gossip super fast.

Eventually, Aaron distanced himself from us and left.

Then things got worse. I found out that Ale had been talking badly about me to my own friends in the group — Samuel, Jace, and Vence. At one point, they even believed her over me. They thought I was lying about personal things, including parts of my background. That hurt me deeply because these were my closest friends. Even then, I forgave them and stayed.

Then everything escalated.

Ale joined in with Aaron with people outside the group, including:

• People connected to Jace’s past
• Other individuals who had issues with us

They formed a larger group against us.

After that, we started receiving:

• Harassing messages
• Threats
• Anonymous texts
• People stalking our social media
• Rape threats

They knew personal information about us because they used to be the ppl closest to us.

The moment we realized when it wasn't a joke to them anymore was on Thanksgiving night. We were all together at a vence’s house, and suddenly someone aggressively banged on the door multiple times and drove away. When we checked the cameras, the person was completely covered.

That situation made everything feel weird and Felt as if these people were so obsessed that same night before they banging all the door we all received no caller ID calls and it sounded like A.I. and it was so weird like they'll be calling us and they'll just breathe on the phone and I was like what is this joke bro it's not even funny.

Now, everything feels out of control.

They continue to:

• Watch my social media
• Spread things about me
• Send messages
• Stay connected in a group against us

Even after everything I did for Ale, after years of defending her, loving her like family, and forgiving her over and over again — this is where it ended.

I don’t know why she did all of this.

But this is everything that happened, from the beginning to now. There is so much more to the story in Baker detail because each and one of us from the group have a person that's attacking us in their in their own group which is the group that's attacking us. The people that are attacking us for our best friends I'm going to answer any questions y'all have because my question to you guys is what should I do? I can't get rid of them. They don't leave me alone. I've taken myself out of social media. I private all my accounts. I don't know what to do anymore. I also want to add that this group of people that are attacking us is like a group of adult men, we are of a legal age, but there is some grown men that are attacking us in the group. Like I just said, I'm willing to answer any questions in more context to the story but I really need help on what I should do. I'm aware that I messed up with letting this woman come back into my life over and over again all I wanna know is what can I do to stop this?

Growing up, I was raised in a very tight "religious" community. My family was part of Jehovah’s Witnesses, so our social circle was small, very structured, and mostly limited to people within the same “hall.” Because of that, everyone kind of knew each other, and families were closely connected. Yk how it goes , its rumors get around FAST! I know this sounds irrelevant but I need to give you backstory on this stuff.

When I was younger, my mom became friends with another woman, who I’ll call Sara. Around the same time, my mom also became close with another woman, Marian, who had a young son (6 yr) at the time, and was expecting another baby. I remember my family held her baby shower or gender reveal at our house bc we have a pretty huge house so my mom offered our house for her event.(I was really young, so I don’t remember exactly which event). That event is important because it’s where everything kind of started.

Marian invited Sara to the event because they had previously been in the same friend group before Sara moving to our hall. Sara had two daughters, who I’ll call Ale (the older one) and Beck (the younger one). That’s how I met them thru this party im a week younger from Ale.

From the very beginning, Ale was different from other kids our age. We were around 7–10 years old, and while most kids were playful and open, she was very withdrawn, dry, and hard to talk to, mainly to me actually just to me. At the time, my mom believed I was the one that was too shy ( I was a very shy child but I know 100% I wasn't with Ale), and My mom had a rule that I HAD to go up and talk to people because otherwise it was considered disrespectful. So even though I felt uncomfortable, I would force myself to go up to Ale and try to be her friend. Every time I tried, she would avoid me, hide from me, or act rude. Stuff like hide inside a closet and stay on her iPad and be on her headphones but as soon as I would leave, she will go out and play with the other kids. She just really didn't like me . May I add I'm not shaming her looks but ever since I met her she was obese. I'm not fat phobic but this is the truth and it's important to this. However I remember feeling really embarrassed because I was putting myself out there and getting rejected, but I didn’t have a choice because if I didn’t try, I would get in trouble with my mom.

The only person I naturally got along with was her younger sister, Beck. She was sweet, and we connected easily. As time went on, Ale and I somehow became close but not in a healthy way. It was more like a cycle of being best friends and then falling out constantly. We were what most ppl call frenemies. I would introduce her to my friends, and she would end up taking them or turning them against me. I didn’t even mind at first because I knew she struggled socially, and I wanted to help her. The truth is, I always treated her with respect. Even though she was only a week older than me, I treated her like someone I needed to take care of. I valued our friendship and always tried to be there for her.

But she would constantly do stuff like:

• Talk badly about me behind my back
• Try to turn my friends against me
• Say things about me that weren’t true
• Talk negativity about my family even though my family gave her family everything.

Every time I found out and confronted her, it would turn into a bigger situation. She would go to her parents and tell them that I was the one being mean to her ; even accusing me of calling her fat, which I didn’t do except for one time when I was younger and reacted out of anger after she insulted me first. I later apologized for that because I knew it was wrong whether who insulted who first .

Her parents, especially her mom, were very aggressive and always took her side no matter what. That caused arguments between our families multiple times. Both of my parents have always been very calm people they never get into problems. However Ale's family has had problems and drama, the reason why they even move to our hall was because they ghosted everyone in their old hall and moved because they got in a really bad problem, so they just got other stuff and moved to our hall and repeated the same story again but with us and now their daughter is the problem too.

This wasn’t a one-time thing. This was a pattern that repeated for years , like 7 times IN JUST ONEE year:

• We become close
• She slowly starts talking bad about me
• I find out
• I tell her its not nice.
• Parents get involved
• We stop talking
• She comes back crying, apologizing
• I forgive her

And then the cycle repeats. Over time, I started recognizing this pattern. I even began giving her “space breaks” between our friendships because I noticed that when we were too close for too long, that’s when she would start acting mean again.

Despite everything, I genuinely loved her. I saw her as family. and to be completely honest, I still love her. I saw her like my sister. I loved her and her family . man, We were going to plan OUR graduation party together. She would come to my house all the time, sleep over, and even call my grandparents “grandma” and “grandpa.” She called my aunts her aunts. My family accepted her completely. Even though they knew how she was because they knew that I cared about her and I was stupid to take her back each time so I could take accountability for that. She would also constantly talk badly about other people — including her own parents — and my family and I would always tell her that wasn’t okay because we’re not like that. and how that negative words that come out of your mouth come into our life. We've always tried to be a positive light for everyone around us and so we try to do the same thing for Ale .Another thing that always stood out is that when people would bully her or talk badly about her, I would defend her every time. I never let anyone disrespect her.But when people talked badly about me, she would join them. The thing is, she was the one to give them that path to talk about me because she was the one that would start it I caught her doing that multiple times. That was one of the biggest differences between us.

Then something happened that changed everything. I've always known that she's been a little bit unhinged, but that was my sister in a way .however about two years ago, I was talking to a guy I liked (I’ll call him Alex). Out of nowhere, he told me we had to stop talking because he thought I was talking to another guy (Pablo). I was confused because I didn’t even really know that person. Alex showed me messages — messages that looked like they were from me!!

Around this time, My family owns a state company and I work in it and I'll started working with me there. She started being problems and she ended up getting fired, however around the time. That she was still working there a hurricane came and she was logging into her Instagram through my phone a couple weeks past and then I get a notification from a guy named Pablo ( same Pablo) and he used to go to my high school which I found weird because I've only talked to him like a couple times because we both had the same dealer, but that was the extent of our relationship so it looked like it was a continuous conversation and I was like what and I go ahead and click on it and it shows like a bunch of DM's on Instagram of me and him talking and I'm like I'm not texting this guy like I don't know who this is and so I just kind of get out of there and I'm like oh it's probably Ale because I was still logged into her account that I forgot and I've never been the nosy type to go into people's business so I was just like oh let me get out. This is weird because how does she know him like she doesn't even go to school like we both already graduated. Like, how does she know this person? We don't even live in the same area but I was like oh maybe just a coincidence you know and I just put it aside and I don't go back to it, but this was the same Pablo that Alex told me about saying that I was talking with, but I wasn't so I was like when I got home I told Alex about it and he was like look back at those messages because that's weird that ale's texting him. When I click on the account it actually snooped around . I wish I did it because I found out that the account that she was texting Pablo from was a catfish account of me and she only followed guys from my high school and would talk to them and send them nudes, pretending to be me. MAY I ALSOOOO add that these are people from high school that had girlfriends!!! so you could imagine how many girlfriends were at my throat, thinking that I was the one sending the boyfriend nudes and all this stuff. And I was like oh it's ale another thing that I could prove it was her was that me and her went to a trip and she took a picture with me and she sent it to Pablo around the time. She was still working and she was like oh I'm going to Mexico and it was like a picture of a plane, but she was not. She was right in front of me so she was just lying to all of these guys left and right I've always been too scared to confront her, but she was literally CRAZY ,She had even taken pictures from my phone and sent them to herself so she could use them on that fake account.

I never confronted her. Because I never thought that it was gonna go that far and I was in shock so I sucked it up and I told my parents, but I knew it was her. I had the proof because I've gone into her phone one day when she was away in the bathroom at work and there was all the evidence I remember I felt my stomach drop to my ass.

I remember testing her once by casually bringing up the name of one of the guys, and she acted like she knew him — even though she had no connection to my school or those people. That confirmed everything for me.

At the time, I was already in a very depressed state, and I didn’t have the energy or strength to deal with it. So I stayed quiet.

What hurt the most was that she would sit there while I was crying over the situation, pretending to comfort me, saying things like “we’ll find out who did this,” when it was literally her the entire time.

Eventually, we drifted apart again.

After that, I met a new group of friends:

• Samuel
• Jace
• Vence
• Aaron

We all became really close. Each of us had strong bonds:

• Aaron was closest to Samuel
• Jace was closest to his best friend (outside the group imma call him chino)
• I was closest to Ale (also out the drop)

I eventually brought A. into this group too once and a while I invited her to most of my events with this friend group because I knew she struggled socially, and my mom told me too at the time.

At first, everything was good. But then things started falling apart again.

Aaron started acting strange. He would go to each of us individually and talk badly about the others, trying to create problems between us. He especially targeted me because he had an interest in me, even though I made it clear I wasn’t interested. At the same time, there were other tensions happening in the group involving relationships, rumors, and outside friendships. Mainly because of the whole Jehovah witnesses spreading gossip super fast.

Eventually, Aaron distanced himself from us and left.

Then things got worse. I found out that Ale had been talking badly about me to my own friends in the group — Samuel, Jace, and Vence. At one point, they even believed her over me. They thought I was lying about personal things, including parts of my background. That hurt me deeply because these were my closest friends. Even then, I forgave them and stayed.

Then everything escalated.

Ale joined in with Aaron with people outside the group, including:

• People connected to Jace’s past
• Other individuals who had issues with us

They formed a larger group against us.

After that, we started receiving:

• Harassing messages
• Threats
• Anonymous texts
• People stalking our social media
• Rape threats

They knew personal information about us because they used to be the ppl closest to us.

The moment we realized when it wasn't a joke to them anymore was on Thanksgiving night. We were all together at a vence’s house, and suddenly someone aggressively banged on the door multiple times and drove away. When we checked the cameras, the person was completely covered.

That situation made everything feel weird and Felt as if these people were so obsessed that same night before they banging all the door we all received no caller ID calls and it sounded like A.I. and it was so weird like they'll be calling us and they'll just breathe on the phone and I was like what is this joke bro it's not even funny.

Now, everything feels out of control.

They continue to:

• Watch my social media
• Spread things about me
• Send messages
• Stay connected in a group against us

Even after everything I did for Ale, after years of defending her, loving her like family, and forgiving her over and over again — this is where it ended.

I don’t know why she did all of this.

But this is everything that happened, from the beginning to now. There is so much more to the story in Baker detail because each and one of us from the group have a person that's attacking us in their in their own group which is the group that's attacking us. The people that are attacking us for our best friends I'm going to answer any questions y'all have because my question to you guys is what should I do? I can't get rid of them. They don't leave me alone. I've taken myself out of social media. I private all my accounts. I don't know what to do anymore. I also want to add that this group of people that are attacking us is like a group of adult men, we are of a legal age, but there is some grown men that are attacking us in the group. Like I just said, I'm willing to answer any questions in more context to the story but I really need help on what I should do. I'm aware that I messed up with letting this woman come back into my life over and over again all I wanna know is what can I do to stop this?