Hey everyone,
I am just writing to announce that this is my last post. This thread has run its course and I feel that I've saturated all I can obtain from this thread, as well as all that anyone can obtain from this thread. The thread has failed to remain on topic.
Instead of staying on topic, the thread at times turned into a direct targeting of OP and OP's intentions/motivations/qualifications for medicine and for a competitive specialty. This is just not what the purpose of me asking the question in the first place was. It was to get advice. Honestly it could have been a yes or no question but NO people just had to get mean.
In addition, several self-proclaimed "altruistic" and "sacrificial" people here have
cherry-picked quotations or parts of things that I've said, taken out of context, and used them to make me out to be some sort of horrible person. I have even recently been accused (and earlier on in the thread) of wanting this specialty because of financial or cosmetic/aesthetic reasons. These are baseless assumptions that I have uttered
NOWHERE on this thread. Moreover, they are extremely inaccurate as I have time and again gone over my motivations for pursuing this line of medicine and those are not even close to my reasons. I sincerely wonder what you folks have to
gain from being so verbally violent on this thread? Can you please take a minute to think about that? Reflect on yourself, please. Think about what you are
gaining from being violent/sarcastic/bullies/generalizers (refer to anti-millenial comments above). Please think about that. Please also, if this is how you act in real life, work to constantly change so that your patients, regardless of specialty, have a nice and compassionate physician who doesn't make judgements on people's intentions/motivations for a specialty.
With that said, am I troll? Have you been PUNKD? I guess you'll never know. Haha. I'll say this: as a Theater person in college I guess I have a tendency to be overdramatic. I also feel that many of my statements were taken
literally on this thread, and that this further made me seem like some extremist who wouldn't do any other specialty--even though I later clarified I would. The truth is this, and I have said this over-and-over-and-over. I would
love to do derm and it would give me an extra spark of happiness that another specialty wouldn't. However, that's all it is, an
extra happiness, in no way required or needed for my survival or prosperity in the field of medicine. I will openly admit that some of my comments on here may have been too dramatic but with the
literal feedback I was getting, it was hard to not play along just for fun.
Despite being verbally targeted on this thread, some of the off-topic conversations have really been
EYE-OPENING. the social dynamics of medicine and clerkships was really interesting and actually important to learn, as was the advice about attending a school versus the stigma of reapplying w acceptances. tbh, i am glad i can't reapply and am quite happy with my med school options so far (this was said in my first post btw). another eye-opening lesson is just how mean my fellow classmates might get in the coming years (ascertained from the comments of the gratuitous posters on this thread). this is a very sad realization to come to, but i have a game plan: to be so overtly nice that i will shatter any evil meanies with my niceness
also-i do want to emphasize that anything you think or perceive to know about me is largely flawed/incorrect because the portrait i painted early on was highly underwhelming in terms of stats/activities and most importantly: background and reason for wanting to do medicine or derm. so as far as judging me or my fit for med school, i would like to point out you cannot make that call.
so, this is me, logging off forever. even though my mind hasn't been changed about derm, my viewpoints and game plan and expectations
have been expanded. i know much more now than i did early on, and i intend to use this knowledge to my benefit and the benefit of others trying to match.
i would like to end with a quotation from a favorite dermatologist who i shadowed two years ago. this quotation will be ill-perceived by some and might be good for others. i think knowing this quotation will help you understand part of my self-aware stubbornness.
when i asked him virtually what should i do and after disclosing the fact that i'll do anything, he said the following: "if you really want this, and i mean really, really want it, like i did, you cannot give yourself the option of not-getting it. you cannot give yourself the option of switching to another specialty. med school will throw bowling balls in your face--especially when you're trying to get into derm-- and you will frequently be tempted to pick another specialty when times get weak. you have to plan ahead, and keep your eye on the goal, and don't let yourself switch your goal, because you will switch if you leave that option readily open"
i am aware that switching may very well end up being a reality, but i think he's right in some aspects. you can't half-*** matching into something like derm.
@asmallchild i would kindly ask that this thread be locked now since i will no longer be participating and since the question has been "answered".
thank you to everyone who participated. and to the unsupportive ones, one last time, please work on being nice
good luck to everyone with their careers!
<3