Alexa tells us about forensic pathology

We haven't asked Siri, the Apple virtual assistant, about forensic pathology. But we did ask Alexa -- no, not Siri's counterpart at Google, but Alexa Haider, who  graduates this spring after four years of studies at Trent University in Peterborough, ON.

I know Alexa from her work at Deer Park Golf Course the past two summers, and when she told me what she was studying, I was, to say the least, very surprised. It's not a field of study and employment we hear a lot about. And not something I expected to hear from a bubbly outgoing young woman who never fails to provide a cheerful welcome to golfers at Deer Park, even early in the morning.

Forensics is science-based detective work, not new to many of us familiar with such TV show titles as the CSI series, Law and Order, Criminal Minds, NYPD Blue, NCIS and going all the way back to shows I'm more familiar with -- Murder She Wrote, Columbo, Kojak and the original Hawaii Five 0.

It was the "pathology" part that got me. It is the study of diseases and causes of death. It involves things like autopsies and the examination of bodies and organs. When combined with forensics, we are talking about doing this in relation to crime. Murders. That type of stuff.

It piqued my curiosity about how high school graduates decide on careers, why she chose that after graduating from Sacred Heart High School in June of 2021,  where she goes from here, and what did she think about that first autopsy?