A Coin Flip Changed Everything: Hilary Vaughn’s Story

This week on The Community Mic, we sit down with Hillary Vaughn, a third-year pharmacy student whose path started with a coin flip—and somehow led her exactly where she’s meant to be.

We talk about trusting your gut, going with the flow while still owning your choices, and how every experience shapes who you become. Hillary also shares her perspective on mental health advocacy, healthcare access, and what it looks like to step into the unknown after graduation.

A reminder that not everything has to be perfectly planned to work out. 🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts & Spotify

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Community Mic, where every voice matters and every story counts. I'm Maria and I'm Stephanie. And we're your hosts. This is a space for honest conversations, community voices, and the power of showing up. Whether you're tuning in from your car, your couch, or your favorite coffee shop, thank you for being here. Let's get into today's conversation. Today we have Hilary Vaughn. I want to tell us a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Okay. I have to think what's important for me to say. What's important to you as a person? Okay. My name is Hillary, and I'm a third-year pharmacy student. I do like plants a lot, but they kind of they're like an on and off relationship. So that's how it goes. I do have a really, really cute cat. We got her on Black Cat Day, and her name is Starla. She was $20 and on sale. She was on sale, and she's old and she has a chronic respiratory infection. So she snoozes all the time. Snoozes are the cutest thing ever told us all the time. But she's so cute. Yeah. I want to meet her guys. She's so sweet. Yeah. Okay. We're gonna start with the question we ask pretty much everybody. Okay. What's a boring fact about yourself? I don't think it's boring because I mean it's like me. I play the LinkedIn and the Facebook games every day. Like it's part of my daily routine. Me too. Because they're so fun. Yes. So they have trivia and sudoku and a really hard crossword. And I play those every day. And I used to play the New York Times, but then I kind of fell off.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

I didn't know Facebook. Yeah. I didn't know the Facebook ones, but I know the uh LinkedIn ones. They're so good. Okay, and this is our favorite one. So if you could be eaten by any animal, what would it be and why?

SPEAKER_01 1:42

A goldfish. Like, think about it. Okay, so what's that show? Magic school bus? So that's kind of the vibe. Imagine being like a fish food pebble, like one of those little things. So you've been showing down. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's almost like, yeah, goldfish have teeth, but that's gonna be my answer. Yeah, they have teeth. So I'm like, that's gonna take forever. No, like imagine being a goldfish food pellet, like just the whole journey of shaken out of the container and then floating on top of the water by a yeah, small by a goldfish. Yeah, why not? The entire process. That's because it's fun. It's the most one. You don't get to run anywhere. Like that's it, just sounds like a fun little ride. It beat me in my little school bus. Why not? It's so great. True. Where does your story begin? My story begins in, well, I'll say in Gretna, Nebraska. I wasn't born there, but that's where I grew up. That's where my parents lived. And I spent all of elementary school through senior year there before I moved to Carney for college, which was kind of the way I went to Kearney was kind of like, I don't want to say last minute, but it felt kind of last minute to me because it did. Because my high school counselor, she like sat me down junior year. She's like, What you gonna do? I'm like, uh-uh. I don't know how I was supposed to like have that figured out. And she was like, Okay, well, here's this scholarship thing that I think you probably want to look into. It's K Hop, it's for like health sciences. You have to choose what you want to be when you grow up. I'm like, okay. And she gave it to me, and the deadline was in like four days. I'm like, what's up? It was a lot to figure out. Well, exactly. And they were like, Yeah, they were like, the application was have a career path, like which what kind of doctor do you want to be almost? And I'm like, okay, like I have nothing better to do. Sure, I'll fill it out. And I remember I needed letters of like references and stuff. So I asked this one teacher, and she's like, I can't believe you asked me so. And I'm like, I don't know, I just learned about this. I filled that out. I chose pharmacy, flipped a coin, said pharmacy, I did that. What was the other option? Med lab scientists, like the people down I think you would have been good at that. I think so, but I really like to talk. Oh you get really close to the people you work with. I know, but think of all the other people I can get close to as apartments. You'll be standards as a pharmacist. Yeah, I give that was the right choice. Exactly. Coin flip did me right. But it did. I don't know. Like, I got that scholarship. I'm like, okay, cool. We're we'll go to Carney, and I've kind of just been like writing that ever since. So I love that. Her entire life has been decided by a coin. Yes. It's worked out so it's worked out great, though. Like you couldn't argue with it. Would I do it again? Yeah. If it flipped the other way, I'm sure it would be fine. So it's worked out. Yeah. So I guess that's kind of like my whole story. A coin flip, and then I went to Carney. Then I came back to Omaha for pharmacy school, and I've just been kind of I think I'm hanging out. People think I do a lot, but I feel like I'm not going to do it.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Your calendar says you do what I do what I want to do.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

That's a good way to live.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

It is. It's a great way to live.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Are you serious? Oh my god, I'm jealous. Do what I want to do. All right. So let's see. The next one is uh what experiences or moments in your life have have shaped who you are today?

SPEAKER_01 5:04

I think almost, I don't know, every moment like plays into who I am now. I don't know if I can like choose a specific thing and say like this was the moment where like I've changed into this person because I don't think there's a specific moment. Everything kind of builds on itself. Like I can think of it. I really love that by the way. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Keep going.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Okay. But I really love that. That's because like that's how it goes. Like every person I meet, like you kind of turn into your friends, you turn into who you surround yourself by. So like if I'm friends with this person for a while, like, okay, I suddenly love their favorite food too. I like my coffee, how they like their coffee. If we fall out of like friends, like that, like I still have that piece of them.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

And I think just everything builds so much. Like, my favorite thing is my friend Alice. I love her so much. I moved back to Omaha her last year in Omaha before she moved to Michigan for neuroscience. I can even be mad at her to go be a super awesome doctor. Oh my god. But it's like every time every time I'm driving down the interstate and changing lanes, like I check my blind spot and I say, Oh, I'm coming over. That's what she used to say every time she drove. So it's just, I don't know, everything builds on itself. So I think every little moment has shaped me into who I am now.

unknown 6:14

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

That's really cool. Yeah. Who or what has been the biggest influence in your past and why?

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Can I say the coin flip? Yeah, it's a what. I mean, that's awesome. It is a what. I think I don't know. It's hard to put like everything on a coin flip, but I think it was defining. I think if I had to say a who, um, I would probably say Ramsel just because I love lots of people do. Such a good egg. He's a genuinely good. He is. So who is oh oh he's a genuinely person. That's all we need to say. It sounds very curious. Ramsel's my fiance. Um, I think he's great because he's very grounding. I think for me, I'm all over the place, or I can be all over the place all the time doing everything, which is fine. Yeah. But he's that person who's like, who are you and what are you doing? And sometimes you just need to hear that. And you're like, oh, I guess I'm Hillary and I need to make some chicken nuggets. Like, I guess we do need to put this down right now. So I think he's like, has always, ever since I've met him, he's been that type of person where it's just like a reminder of like life's real almost. And I think that's really important. What's a misconception people often have about your work or your story? I think people see my story as being very I I don't know. When I tell it, it can sound like I'm kind of hands-off in the whole thing, like a coin flip, and then I did this and then I did this, because it just like rolls over into that. But when like telling the story that way, it kind of loses the part where everything's been my choice. And I think when I finally like have the opportunity to make make a choice for myself and like make a choice for a group, people are like, Whoa, what's happening? Like, no, like this is actually how we're gonna get things done. This is how it's gonna work. So I think just not saying that I'm not like go with the flow, but it's really hard to see the balance in me between like, okay, well, this has to be done, this is how it works, versus like, okay, it'll work out in the end. And like both sides are true, but one's just seen more than the other.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

But I do love that because you know, uh we are all different, right? So all of us need something more. Uh, just like I was telling Steph earlier today, like I use tarot cars to check with my intuition, like, am I on my right path? And that's really cool that you use a coin, even though it's different things. We always want to make sure that we're checking in with ourselves. Like, is this the right thing to do? You know, where can I go? Like, show me this to go here, show me that to go here. So, I personally I find it intriguing because I'm like, that is really cool. I never thought of that. Yeah, obviously, you know, like when you are checking um with like some choices, you're like, oh, you know, I will pick up a coin and see like, is it yes or no? But that is amazing. So I I don't know. I'm just taking new tools and putting them in my toolbox. Yeah. So I that's what I'm getting through this conversation.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

And the nice thing with a coin flip too is like you can always disagree with it. Yeah. So and that's a nice thing too. Like, if it tells me I need to eat like salmon for dinner, and I'm like, I actually really don't want to do that. Like, that helped me make up my mind to exactly because you already give you answers no matter what.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

I love it. Because either way, like you you know that either you agree with it or you don't. Yeah. I like that. Look at this. See, you tools in my toolbox.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Otherwise, you just truly don't care. So whatever happens, exactly. It always works out. Yeah. What impact do you hope your story has on others who are listening? Oh, um, I was gonna say, I hope it's inspiring. But like, I hope my story impacts others by just kind of showing them that everything works out in whichever way it works out. Like, I wouldn't say there's a good way it's gonna work out or a bad way it's gonna work out. It just works out. It all falls into place. Like, no matter what, everything's gonna be yeah. You find what you need to find in your day-to-day life if you look for it.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Yeah. If you fight it too hard, you're just making your life difficult.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Yeah, then you're not even gonna find forever.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

But I feel like even then you're still making that choice yourself, right? And then I'm just talking about like my own life where I have seen it, I have seen it that way. Like right now, I don't have a job job, but I'm still like it's gonna be okay. I am going to be fine. I have been through so much in my life, like this is not going to be my end all.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Like this is no way in hell this is going to stop me to get to getting where I needed to go to. So I can feel it like in my chats.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Like, you're this is not it. Like we know that we're gonna get there. So I love that. I everything is going to be fine. Fine. You know, I'm still here. It's one small blip. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Yes, you'll end up where you need to end up. Like for me, pharmacy school. Yeah, when I was in when I was in high school, I flipped a coin for it.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

But I think every day I'm on campus, I'm surrounded by like my classmates and the faculty there, and everyone's so nice. I'm like, this is this is right. Like these are the people I'm supposed to be talking to right now. Like, this is good.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Okay, so what is next for you?

SPEAKER_01 11:07

Oh, that's such a good question. I don't know. I guess we'll see. I'm almost done with pharmacy school. I have, I think somebody said we have four more weeks in the classroom. And then I'm like, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I've been in a classroom for the past, like, I don't know, 19 years. That's the hardest transition is real world out of the classroom. It's kind of scary. I'm like, okay, cool. But we have a year of rotation, so I get a wop around seeing what pharmacists do everywhere for a year. And then do you have to write reports on everything? Or is it just like the real world and you don't have to send anything to the school? We have to like do a reflection, and I think there's like a list of requirements we have to do, but I don't think they're very in-depth. It's just like, did you go? Did you learn anything? And that's like it.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Nice. But you said around the world, so what does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Oh, I'm in Nebraska for all of them except for one. I have my last three years, my last three months of pharmacy school are gonna be fun. I'm in Omaha at One World with one of my faculty members. Oh, nice. And then I'm going to Costa Rica with my friend. So we got a rotation in Costa Rica, and then my last like technical month of school took it as my vacation block. So I'm gonna be done a month early. So I'm just gonna have fun from January to May almost. So it's so exciting. That is exciting. I am gonna have a great 2027. And then after school, I don't know. We were talking today about residency programs because that's an option for pharmacists to go and get additional training in something special. That's something I've been thinking of, but I don't, I'm not a hundred percent sure on. The thing that I could maybe see myself doing is specializing in psychiatry and then working almost like a psychiatrist does, just like with medication management, which would be interesting. But that's like two more not two more years of schooling, but two years of I don't know, more intensive education. Which I so I would probably do it. Are you able to do that after you've been in the field for a while? Or is it one of those things like you really should do it right after like like continuing on? Well, you can, but it's one of those things where it's like you probably should like after you continue on because residency's like more more intense than like a job, like you got projects and research and stuff. So a lot of people just do it right after school since they're so like into the grind still. And also like it's a pay cut compared to a pharmacist. So I'd hate to like spend three years making real money and then cut that in half to do more training. I don't know, they have bird like board certification afterwards. So like if you've worked for five years in a field and you didn't do a residency, you can still sit for that exam and see if you pass it. So there's a couple routes, but because I was just curious, like if you're like, I don't know what I like, so I want to figure it out before I specialize instead of being like, I think I like this, and then you get into the real world and you're like, I've spent this extra time and money for no freaking reason. That's what I was scared of, but like talking to a couple like other pharmacists, they say they get a really good feel for what they like on their rotations because I get to be in a different setting like every month. Like this first month, I'll be at UNL, like in student health, and then I'll go to like a hospital in North Platte, or then I'll be at the VA. So you get to see a lot of different things your last year. And that's kind of when people are like, okay, this is the one that like stuck with me. Like, I feel good going to this place every single day. I like this area. And that's kind of where I heard a lot of people make their decisions. If not your second year, like if you do a residency, your first year of residency is still pretty general. And they have like the opportunity to do rotations there too. So then you can kind of still see, like, okay, I actually like I like oncology way more than I like psychiatry. And then you can choose that. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

That's really cool. At least you get that sense of this is exactly where I belong, you know, kind of thing. Like it just gives you that this is where I want to be. Yeah. Like it it's meeting your needs. Pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

And if you don't like anything, like, okay. You can still be a pharmacist. You can do that. A pharmacist can pretty much do everything. You don't have to like specialize, but you can.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

With that, could you do your I guess just a question?

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Would could you be able to do like your own business with that or no? I don't know. Probably. Yeah. It'd be really hard. Yeah. It's like how would you be able to get started? The question just goes down to how are you going to get paid? Because that's the question in pharmacy right now. Like, we have the ability to do all of this stuff. Like, we can do like one-on-one like medication counseling and stuff, but we can't get paid for it. So that's kind of that's what's going on in pharmacy in the news right now. Is like, okay, well, how can they get paid for their services? Because if you don't make any money off of it, then what's like no corporation is gonna want you to do it because that's a waste of time. So that's kind of how things are going right now. So it's just like, how would you get paid for those services? Because also it doesn't like sit right with me. I'm sure for some other people it does to like offer this, like I'll help you figure out your hormones, but I'm gonna charge you. Like I'm gonna charge you, the patient, this much for my help. Like some people pay that, but I feel like that kind of there's like a divide there where it's like, okay, well, then these people can get the services, but these people can't. So I think money's kind of the interesting thing for like pharmacists right now. Like, what can you do and what can't you do?

SPEAKER_00 16:22

That is interesting. Because I, you know, I I would think like because we're like with Medicaid and Medicare, you know, does it cover those costs? And obviously, like when it comes to a lot of the things, no, it doesn't. So then it becomes a responsibility of the patient. So do you really need this? Then we can help. But if not, then we can't.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

And a lot of people on Medicaid and Medicaid have lower health literacy, and they're the ones that need the help consultation, and they're not the ones that get it. Yeah, they have to pay for it.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Yeah, which is wild.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

I love our world, it's great.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Yeah, that's something I'm like every single day. I'm like, I wish I could just do volunteer work forever. But I guess, you know, you got mills, girls got mills.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

You know that that's one of the things I admire. So there's this organization here in Constable Office, it's called Interfaith Response. They do good work. Love, I love them so much. They help the entire county, Pottawanami County. And when I spoke with an executive director when I first started talking to her, and I'm like, so you know, how do you guys get paid like all of this thing? She's like, nope, everything we do is voluntary. Everyone that shows up, they're volunteers. And I'm like, Oh my god. I'm like, because and I and I kind of try to explain that to her, and I'm like, listen, like, I know that you guys are doing it in good faith, but now, like, how does one do that? I'm like, I wish I could do that. But then I'm like, at my age with a child with bills to pay, how do you do that?

SPEAKER_01 17:43

You know, you can't you can't really they give like rental relief to people. Okay. So like if they are running short on their bills, you can apply to in your faith, and then like they'll give you so much towards rent or utilities or it is amazing. Or they can help you find furniture for your house. They try to make up whatever is missing. Yeah. So that's their response. And you it doesn't matter if you're religious or not, even though they are funded by like faith-based organizations, you don't have to be religious to receive their services. It's just as long as you are a resident in Pottawanomy County, you get the services. So nice. Yeah. Okay, next question for you. Are there parts of your journey that you're still writing? Yeah. All of it, I feel like. I mean, you're at a big turning point. I am at a big turning point. Like big girl job or a residency. I'm so scared about insurance. It's scary. Oh my gosh. Confusing. I don't want to turn 26. I don't want to deal with that. Oh, this goes by really slowly.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Isn't it next year?

SPEAKER_01 18:47

I just turned 24. Two years. So, what legacy do you hope you leave behind? I know you're still very young, but I don't know. That's such such a hard question. I feel like that's not something I get to choose, you know? You can choose the actions to leave a legacy. Yeah, I feel like my actions won't change if I'm thinking about leaving a legacy anyway. Like I'm gonna do, I'm gonna no, like I'm gonna do what I want to do. And if that's a part of my legacy, cool. If it's not, okay. That's valid. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I could ask you that question. What do you think my legacy would be? Like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. This is your legacy what you think. So I think if you wanted to be like, I want to make more of a difference to make an impact for a legacy, I think you would devote more time to your mental health advocacy. Because you're already big into it now. So you would speak more about it, you would be more open about it, and you would just be like, here. Yeah. So that would be you would make a mental health legacy, or you would do more advocating for removal of health disparities and pharmaceutical things. And I love all of those things. It's just, I think where I put my focus, it's every everything at the same time. So, like for mental health, yeah, I started the suicide prevention walk at our school. Like that was very successful our first year. We're doing it again this year. And I'm gonna keep working on that while I'm here. But then also, like, yes, the the different social determinants of health, like that's also something where I'm like, I wanna I I wanna fix that too, even though not everything can be fixed, is like, how can I play into this and play into this and play into this? So I feel like there could be a lot of different little legacies I leave behind. And I think I did start a lot of those at school, thinking back at it. Like I do things that make me happy, and it's like starting that suicide prevention walk. I'm really, really proud of what we did last year, and I'm proud of what we're doing this year. And then also like welcoming the kids to the Carney campus, it's like the UNMC Carney campus, that's really awesome. There's nine of them out there, and me and my friends, we get to go on a field trip once a semester to go over there and visit them.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

That's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

So there's like a couple little things where like, okay, that's something that I like to do. That's something I did, but it's also something I know I'm like, that's making a difference. It could be making a difference in one of those nine kids or all of them. Yeah. The suicide prevention walk is if that like resonates with one person, like, cool. That's what I wanted it to do.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

And that's honestly, yeah, that's what I was gonna say. But then there you go. Your actions did it for a certain cost. Yeah. Because I mean, that feels like a legacy, like doing things just like you said, yeah, things that make you happy. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Yeah, happiness is a legacy. Exactly. If somebody grasps onto it, like cool. Yeah, good for you. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

I love that. Thank you so much for hanging out with us today. That's it for today's episode. Thanks for being a part of the conversation. Remember, every voice has power and every story makes a difference. Follow the community mic on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok to stay inspired and connected. Hit subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you never miss an episode.