The Road Less Travelled... Indecision...

[DLY303]

Are any other non-trads struggling with knowing *for sure* what you want to do career wise? I just can't decide the path I want to take and feel like I need to spend more time in undergrad.

I am in my late 30's, so I feel a little pressure to make a decision sooner rather than later at this point. A little background on my situation- I did not attend college after high school so academia is still new to me. In my 30's, I have had some very serious medical issues that are now resolved, but I do feel like it affected my ability to just enjoy school and really see what makes me happy.

I have done very well despite multiple hospitalizations (4.0 plus tons of EC's). I just feel like I am not ready to decide on my ultimate career path. I am considering spending an extra year in undergrad in order to pursue all my options and take even more general ed. classes. Has anyone else done this?

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[NTF]

Are any other non-trads struggling with knowing *for sure* what you want to do career wise?

I know it's not a common sentiment on SDN. You frequently hear "I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else" or "If you could see yourself doing anything else, then don't go into medicine". But you may want to consider at the age you are whether you're built for the kind of career epiphany that we were all told growing up that we should have. I'm jealous of people with that wonderful feeling of having a "calling" and way envious of those who got it at a young age. But I long ago came to terms with the fact that my personality isn't really structured for that kind of clarity. I'm never ENTIRELY sure I'm making the right the decision. There's always shades and glimmers of doubt.

The truth is once I realized that I'm just not that kind of guy, life got a lot easier and more fun. It kind of relieved me of a lot of pressure. I could throw myself into things with much more joy, because I didn't have to know that "this was IT". I could just enjoy the process and the path. I think medicine is really cool. I love science and teaching. I love puzzles and research. I'd like the world to be a smidgeon better for my having been here. I like hangin with patients (even the ones that drive you mad). I really enjoy the spectrum of humanity I've witnessed in my work at a hospital, both patients and staff. I live a more fulfilling life now that I'm no longer waiting for that revelatory moment.

At some point you gotta just make your best judgement. There may not be a beam of light from the heavens and an angelic choir (sorry Hillary - I'm paraphrasing). Sometimes you make your best judgement and enjoy your path for what it is. The nice thing about not being burdened with purity of purpose is that you're always prepared to cut your losses or adapt. It makes you less delusional about career paths. It is what it is and that's not bad. It can still be meaningful and fun and not be "what you were always meant to be". Nothing's all bad. Nothing's all good. It's all about what you think you'll enjoy doing day to day.

 

[DevonL]

It was a long road for me to discover what I truly wanted to do. I entered college at 19 knowing that I wanted to be in business and ultimately one day run my own business. It's all well and good when all you're thinking about is money, you could indeed say I was immature with my career path. I ended up dropping out of my first college after a semester because I was as unhappy as one could be with it.

I switched colleges and continued on my path with studying business. Surprise, surprise ... I hated my current college as well. I sat down and thought what I wanted to do with my life and wondered why I was so unhappy - it finally hit me. I wasn't unhappy with the schools, I was unhappy with what I was studying, and ultimately the direction I was taking my life.

I had to find out what would make me happy so in the meantime I just kept on studying business - ultimately a poor decision in my opinion, but it was at the behest of my family. I had two thoughts: cooking or medicine. Ultimately I really wanted to go into medicine, NOT cooking. However, once again at the behest of my family (my brother actually) I opted to go into cooking. It didn't last long until I said "No, I'm not doing this; I'm going to become a doctor. I'm not going to live my life wondering 'What if I actually tried?'" I opted to do what I truly wanted to do.

Honestly, a lot of time has been wasted to a certain degree, but I couldn't be happier with the direction I'm taking my life now. Sure, I'm unhappy with what the Government wants to do with the healthcare industry, but I can only hope for the best in the meantime and hope that we'll come out on top, rather than screwed being Government ******.

 

[sumstorm]

I am in the same boat as Nontradfogie. I do not believe in a 'single calling' philosophy.... mostly because that concpet would cause me much heartache if I couldn't follow the calling due to uncontrollable circumstances. I have seen this mentality cause my husband much heartache. He believes his calling was astronaute, and he does have an aerospace engineering degree and entered the military..... but would never have qualified for astronaute training because his vision isn't ideal. He, at times, perceives himself at 'failing' at his calling, despite his current position as one of the top IT security experts in the world. He is well compensated, well respected, and life is good, but this shadows his life.

So I think there are several callings that a given individual could pursue and enjoy. And that different times and different environments will inspire different pursuits of those callings.

 

[DevonL]

I will add this: Just because you feel something is your calling, doesn't mean you have to throw it in the closet to do what you think will TRULY make you happy. I love to cook, but doing it as a career? I'm much happier with medicine; it doesn't mean I cannot still cook though.

 

[sindadel]

As always, I love your perspective, nontradfogie. I do definitely want to do medicine but there are a LOT of other things I want to do in life and I've done some of them already.