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Being a doctor is a calling, like being a fireman or a priest. This right here tells me that Medicine is not for you. You've done your due diligence, now find something else. If need be, just work for a few years until inspiration hits you.

I didn't like hospice at all and was pretty indifferent about the hospital and shadowing
 
You're an introvert and want to teach?

My suggestion is to take a semester or two off if you need it, and set about finding out more about various career options before returning to school. Shadow some teachers. Talk to your professors about teaching at the college level. Ask to shadow some nurses is various types of nursing. Find some professions you do like -- then regroup and start again.

The way you're heading, you could easily damage your future prospects by graduating with an inappropriate major and sub-optimal GPA due to confusion and low motivation. Come back and finish strong --
 
Okay a couple things that are specific to your post but apply to 90% of premeds as well:

1) Being a doctor is not about science classes, gpa etc. Those things matter for every professional field out there and just because you may not end up becoming a doctor doesn't mean you can slack and take easy classes. Those who don't learn to learn will never achieve excellence in anything.

2) Being a doctor is about being a doctor. If you want to know whether its right for you, then you go out and see what a doctor does by shadowing - which you've done. Don't conflate this with your academics. If you weren't drawn in to the profession while shadowing, its probably not for you. I agree 110% with @Goro that medicine is a calling in this day in age. If you're looking to help people and have a decent salary, its not for you. Theres plenty of other positions in healthcare if you're open-minded.

3) Being an introvert has nothing to do with being socially fluent. Being an introverted female does not exclude you from law. A close friend of mine became a judge recently. She rarely speaks in social situations - but when she does, everyone shuts up and listens.

4) Dreading your life because you are invested in your academics is a poor attitude. This ties into #1 - you're work/life balance is something you should work towards every day. Be excellent academically, and be excellent at taking care of yourself. You don't have to "sacrifice your 20s" or any bs like that to thrive professionally in medicine (or any other field)

5) Teaching/being an educator is an extraordinarily gratifying profession. I have an immense respect for teachers and if I weren't going into medicine, I would become a teacher. Having said that, you are correct that it is undervalued/underpaid at the high school level. But if you truly love it, potentially excel at what you do everyday for decades, and make enough money to put food on the table, the question you have to ask yourself is, "is that enough?"
 
I think it's normal to be stressed about academics. On top of having to have a high GPA you have to be involved in a **** ton of things, which at some schools can be ridiculous.

The process from undergrad to residency sucks and I don't like it, but in a lot of ways it's like fraternity hazing. Does it suck? Yes definitely but in can also improve yourself a ton in ways you don't even expect. Unfortunately you just have to suck it up and do it

On being an introvert, do you possibly have social anxiety? It's more common than you think
 
futuredoc520 said:
I know lots of introverted teachers. You don't need to be extroverted to teach. I've also taken an education class where I got to teach in a middle school classroom. It was pretty cool. You're right about the shadowing. I'll look into shadowing different careers.



Being a doctor is not about classes specifically, but there is a lot of learning to be done before becoming an attending. I truly don't know if I can go through med school without being suicidal. How does one not sacrifice their 20s in med school + residency? How does it not take the life out of people? I can't imagine constantly studying and working those insane hours. About teaching, being able to put food on the table frankly isn't enough. I want to be able to afford flights to visit my family, take vacations around the country, dine at fancy restaurants occasionally, etc. comfortably.
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you're missing the point here!! Yes medicine is uniquely challenging in a lot of ways - especially work week hours. but what anyone who dabbles in any field quickly realizes, is that to become the top cut of any field requires a lot of dedication, sacrifice and hard work.

to some extent you're coming off as saying you want to do something you love and pays well but is not demanding. What I'm saying is that "pays well" does not go hand in hand with "not demanding". Perhaps you'll find the drive to change your attitude towards your workload when you find something you're passionate about. But if you want a comfortable life of nice restaurants, vacations etc., you have to earn it - and that starts with becoming an efficient learner and achieving a healthy work/life balance.
 
futuredoc520 said:
I understand that! Really. I guess I'm looking for something in between. You can have nice things comfortably without having the salary of a doctor.
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very true!!
because of my limited exposure id say some great professions for limited academic investment include midlevels in healthcare, technicians, systems security in IT, computer science in general...the list goes on!

hell, the guy that does handywork under a contract at Lowes gets paid $100/hr for his work.

if i were in your position i would focus on 1) finding something you love while concurrently 2) working on your academic skills and work/life balance.
 
Goro said:
Being a doctor is a calling, like being a fireman or a priest. This right here tells me that Medicine is not for you. You've done your due diligence, now find something else. If need be, just work for a few years until inspiration hits you.

I didn't like hospice at all and was pretty indifferent about the hospital and shadowing
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I wouldn't advise people to not go into medicine if it's not a "calling". Everyone has their own motivations. Medicine is just a job (often a crappy one), with different responsibilities.
 
futuredoc520 said:
Hi everyone,

If you've read by previous threads you can probably tell I'm pretty indecisive. I'm a junior in college now and every semester I think more and more about pursuing a different career. I've volunteered in hospice, a hospital and shadowed. I didn't like hospice at all and was pretty indifferent about the hospital and shadowing. My grades aren't stellar, but I know that if I give my all I can get into med school whether it's allopathic or osteopathic. I think I'm a pretty smart person overall, but I know I would do better in school if I had a stronger drive. I know if I put my mind to it, I can become a doctor. I just don't think I want to.

If I dread almost every science class in undergrad, how will I handle med school? Residency? I don't want to give up my 20s. It's basically dreading the next ~8 years of my life! I also cannot function properly on less then 8 hours of sleep, which will definitely be a problem. My drive to do well in school has consistently decreased over the past few years. I'm scared I'm going to burn out and lose myself. I've thought so much about other careers, but I have no idea what I would do or where I would even begin. I feel like I'm premed because I don't know what else to do. It just fits my requirements of helping society and making a stable income.

Clinical Psychology - not sure if this will make me happy.
Teaching High School - I would LOVE to do this, but teachers extremely underpaid and undervalued.
Principal - Maybe. Not sure how beneficial to society I would be doing this.
Education (general) - America's education system sucks. I'd like to do something about it.
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner - I don't know too much about this, but it seems interesting. I kind of wish I started out as nursing in the beginning of college.
Politics - I love politics but it's not an honest profession.
Law - Unstable profession. I don't think my introvert personality is cut out for that, especially as a female.
Sustainability - I'm very environmentally conscious and might like getting a job out of it. No idea how to do that though.
Religion - I like learning about religion. Again, don't know how I would make a career out of it.

My school's advisors suck, so any advice is appreciated.
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I did not read this post but your name is "future doctor" so I think you should go for it!
 
Hello there! I'm a high school chemistry teacher that is currently applying for medical school. I can tell you first hand, teaching is NOTHING like you expect. Teachers do so much work that goes unrecognized. I'd go as far as saying that high school teachers work twice as hard at home after school is already over. It is an incredibly time consuming career. It can also be mentally exhausting at times, especially at the end of a marking quarter when parents are hounding you to give their child a better grade.

That being said, it can be a very rewarding profession. If one student feels like they learned something valuable in your class, that can be enough to motivate the teacher for the rest of the week. At times I really feel like I'm making a difference in the future for our country.

The money is DEFINITELY not there. Teachers deserve easily a double in their salary, if not more. That being said, the salary for teachers is going to increase. It has to. There are thousands of teaching positions open with no one to fill them. (My school alone has three open positions that no one has applied for.) Also, fewer and fewer students are studying education in college. My alma mater has seen a 50% decrease in education enrollment in the past ten years. If the compensation for teaching isn't addressed, no one is going to enter the profession anymore. I see it being addressed within ten years.

I hope that's helpful for you. Feel free to message me if you have any questions!
 
OP do something u'll like..med students don't lose their 20's many have a fairly enjoyable time. Do something ull like or ull dread the every year of ur life instead of just 8
 
Yes, I know that some people do it because their parents make them, or that they like the idea of making lots of cash, but re-read the OP. S/he will hate a career in Medicine.



saveourpens said:
I wouldn't advise people to not go into medicine if it's not a "calling". Everyone has their own motivations. Medicine is just a job (often a crappy one), with different responsibilities.
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@futuredoc520

I think I replied to one of your posts before. These are my two cents so take what resonates with you.

If you are telling yourself that medicine is not for you, listen to that part of you. If there is something telling you that you do want to do it, though, determine what it's saying.

I was in the same boat in undergrad, with pre-med as my temporary track until something else came along. Didn't think it would stay; it stuck. But it involved really thinking about whether the benefits outweighed the cost. Knowing myself, I was figured the training I'd receive and the integration of material towards service would keep me invested despite the years of education. That's what I went with.

So I would suggest being mindful of what draws you to being a physician while also informing yourself about other careers that interest you (which you have here--a great start!). If you change your mind and you realize later in life medicine is for you, realize the option is there. Older non-trad students do apply to and succeed in medical school.

Some brief thoughts on momentum: everyone will have something different that drives them. One of my favorite med writers has a series on momentum; I suggest checking it out if you're interested. Suffice to say, momentum's not always streamlined, but if you find something positive that works, use it.

http://www.mikelavere.com/writing/build-momentum-life/

Best of luck with your education and endeavors!
 
If you have the urge to say something along the lines of "I don't know how I will get through X years of school without comitting suicide", even jokingly, don't do it. If you think you will be unhappy find something else to do or do some soul searching before you make a decision. My friend took two years off of school because he had absolutely no idea what he had to do. He worked part-time while he was figuring out what to do and saved up money then decided once he found his calling. Don't be afraid to take time to yourself to figure it out.
 
It sounds to me like your most ambitious desire is to make education better. As such, it sounds like being a principal or other academic administrator might be up your alley. Maybe take a look at formal education in public policy so that you could work on education policy.
 
futuredoc520 said:
How does one not sacrifice their 20s in med school + residency? How does it not take the life out of people?
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I see this point come up all the time, that one's 20s are some magical period, filled with glory and adventures and the pinnacle of youthful experimentation. Once in the past, those lost moments will never be recovered, blown by the winds of time to wherever what could have been goes to die.

Yeah, I don't think so.

Devil's advocate: what exactly do you think your 20s are about? Why do you feel that you'd be "sacrificing" them? Do you want to have a lot of raging parties and get hammered every night? Do you want to get married and raise a family? Do you want to travel the world? You don't have to be 20-something to do any of this. You can even do a lot of it while you're still in school.

Let me put it this way: I thought the very same thing you did at the beginning of my 20s, so I put off applying to school. What I eventually came to realize is that continuing education is not the destruction of youth that it seems to be. Yes, it's a big commitment. Yes, you put some parts of your life on the back-burner. But it's not like you're locked in a gulag or something. You're receiving training, gaining knowledge, learning about processes and procedures that most folks on this dear planet will never appreciate or comprehend. You are improving your ability to contribute to society by gaining experience and exposure, and to me there's nothing sacrificial about that.

You need to ask yourself honestly: is there something else I'd rather be doing?

EDIT: Re-reading this post, I apologize if I seem hostile. It's just you seem like you have the same kind of ideas that I had when I was in your position, and if I could go back in a time machine and slap myself upside the head, I would. Posting like this is the next best thing.
 
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