By Claire Rifkin, MS, RDN, LDN
People sometimes assume I always planned to become a dietitian. That isn’t true at all.
I moved to New York City the day after I graduated college and immediately threw myself into working. I started in film and then moved into fashion PR pretty quickly, which meant long days, constant deadlines, and the kind of schedule where you are always half-working even when you are technically off. At the time, I told myself it was fine. I was young, I was in New York, and everyone around me seemed to be living the same way. I also thought it was cool, which made it easier to ignore how tired I actually was.
Eventually, the lifestyle caught up with me. I was burnt out and not taking care of myself in any consistent way. I always felt like I was running on empty, and no amount of sleep or a single “healthier week” ever fixed it. I loved the pace and energy of the city, but I didn’t love how my life felt in my body. I remember realizing that I was putting so much effort into doing my job well that there was nothing left over for the basics, like sitting down to eat a real lunch or making a dinner that wasn’t eaten standing at the counter.
I had always liked food in a very real-world way. I loved cooking, hosting, and reading about nutrition, not as a trend or an identity, but as something practical and grounding. At some point, that interest stopped being background noise and started feeling impossible to ignore. I didn’t have a single, cinematic “purpose” moment. Instead, I could clearly see that the path I was on would continue asking me to trade my health for my ambition, and I knew I didn’t want to keep making that trade.
That’s when I started taking post-bacc science classes at BMCC while I was still working. I won’t romanticize that part because it was hard. I wasn’t a naturally strong student before grad school, and going back to classes after long workdays in the city was humbling. At the same time, it was the first time school actually made sense to me. The material felt relevant to my real life, and for the first time, I felt motivated in a way I hadn’t before.
From there, it became a real plan. I applied to NYU, got accepted, and completed the full path: the DPD program, my M.S., and my clinical internship. I learned an enormous amount, both academically and personally. I also learned exactly how stressed I can make myself when I decide something has to go perfectly.
The most on-brand example is that I studied for the RD exam during the same summer I got married. I passed on the first try, but I also stressed myself out badly enough to give myself perioral dermatitis. I genuinely wish that detail were a joke.
That experience was a turning point for me. It made it very clear that even when you are doing something you care deeply about, you are still a human being with needs that deserve attention and care.
Now I’m on the other side of that journey, which still feels a little surreal. I get to do work that actually fits me, including private practice, media, partnerships, and writing, and I get to talk about food in a way that reflects what I once lived through in my former corporate life. Becoming a dietitian wasn’t something I always planned, but it ended up being the right path because it grew out of real experience, not a perfectly mapped-out idea.
