Enjoy your life when you're college aged

[MedicineZ0Z]

With all the physician "wellness" nonsense the past couple years, I think it's important to look back at the importance of enjoying your prime years. There's just wayyy too much delayed gratification in medicine. The reality is that the "award" at the end of the tunnel is not what you think it is.
Medicine can be pretty fun. You really need a passion for it to actually enjoy it. But the hours are long and you shouldn't sacrifice your prime years entirely just to make it. You won't get a fraction of the "respect/prestige" that many premeds think you do. The money will eventually be good (in your 30s) which is about the only true award you get. But money won't buy time and certainly won't bring back prime years.

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[RocuROMANium]

With all the physician "wellness" nonsense the past couple years, I think it's important to look back at the importance of enjoying your prime years. There's just wayyy too much delayed gratification in medicine. The reality is that the "award" at the end of the tunnel is not what you think it is.
Medicine can be pretty fun. You really need a passion for it to actually enjoy it. But the hours are long and you shouldn't sacrifice your prime years entirely just to make it. You won't get a fraction of the "respect/prestige" that many premeds think you do. The money will eventually be good (in your 30s) which is about the only true award you get. But money won't buy time and certainly won't bring back prime years.

As an older nontraditional applicant, I cannot imagine going all the way from Kindergarten to being an attending without several gap years. No wonder burn out is so rampant throughout this profession.

 

[Med Ed]

With all the physician "wellness" nonsense the past couple years,

Describe.

 

[Ganon]

I’m a nontrad M3. I go out of my way to have fun on clerkships, BS with patients and staff (and oftentimes physicians I’m working with), and to not drive myself nuts on whatever time I have off.
I think there’s a difference between taking serious things seriously, and living miserably with a stick up your butt throughout the process. Took me a year to figure that out

 

[Angus Avagadro]

You can go to med school and enjoy life. My wife and I were med students when we married. We made many sacrifices to be together and raise a family. We lived in the suburbs and practiced in urban areas. We joined larger groups. Coordinating vacations, call, and time off was challenging, but at least one of us was always at school events and sporting events. It worked out that one of us was on call every other weekend. We took great vacations and basically worked hard and played hard. I totally get that some people get burned out, but thats why I chose not to do a CCM fellowship. Attitude and a fierce desire to make thing work goes a long way. It took a toll on my health but looking back, I don't think I'd change a thing

 

[Doctoscope]

On the other side of the coin, if you don't make sacrifices in your 20s, whether that be through busting your ass at a career, education, or climbing the corporate ladder, I doubt you'll find a job as high-paying and stable as a physician.

Even my SWE friends have their own money/career troubles in their late 20s/early 30s, and SWE is considered to be one of the best careers right now.

You can't have it all unless you're a trust fund baby, and even that has its own problems.

 

[Lucca]

These days it's pretty tough to both be a successful premed applicant by the time you graduate and enjoy life. I had a good time in college overall but the pressure of doing everything to get into med school was not conducive to a balanced life. For that reason I'm very pro gap years. Gap years were definitely the most fun of my life. Med School *can* be pretty low stress and highly enjoyable or an exhausting slog depending on your career goals.

If I were giving a freshman advice, although theyd never follow it, I would say use undergrad to 100% focus on academics (and research, if you want to be a researcher). Whatever other time you have use it to explore lots of different career options and have fun, be young. Once you decide what you want to do, use gap years to build up ECs / XP if you need it for your career path or if you end up in CS/finance/business/primary+secondary education you can just go straight to work.

There's really only two chances to study something very deeply and learn how to learn and thats undergrad and PhD. If you're not interested in the PhD then undergrad is your one chance. All the other premed boxes done for the sake of the app and not for fun are just taking time away from that IMO.

 

[RocuROMANium]

Also, gap years can really provide perspective. There’s nothing like working countless dead end jobs where you barely make above minimum wage that makes you grateful to pursue a career your passionate about that is also compensated well. I’m 30 making $14 an hour...

I did a lot in my early twenties and have a lot of experiences and memories I would not trade for the world but I’m also sick of being broke and not being in a profession.

 

[MedicineZ0Z]

On the other side of the coin, if you don't make sacrifices in your 20s, whether that be through busting your ass at a career, education, or climbing the corporate ladder, I doubt you'll find a job as high-paying and stable as a physician.

Even my SWE friends have their own money/career troubles in their late 20s/early 30s, and SWE is considered to be one of the best careers right now.

You can't have it all unless you're a trust fund baby, and even that has its own problems.

Yes you will need to make some sacrifices. As long as there's a fine balance. A lot of premeds think life will be on easy mode as an attending.
Why is there burnout at all?

Something about very long hours & hard work followed by lack of general respect and endless continued hard work.

 

[lull]

With all the physician "wellness" nonsense the past couple years, I think it's important to look back at the importance of enjoying your prime years. There's just wayyy too much-delayed gratification in medicine. The reality is that the "award" at the end of the tunnel is not what you think it is.
Medicine can be pretty fun. You really need a passion for it to actually enjoy it. But the hours are long and you shouldn't sacrifice your prime years entirely just to make it. You won't get a fraction of the "respect/prestige" that many premeds think you do. The money will eventually be good (in your 30s) which is about the only true award you get. But money won't buy time and certainly won't bring back prime years.

Something that sits in the back of my mind while I debate taking extra gap years is family obligations. If I didn't have to think about alleviating family burdens, I would take several gap years after college. There is that impending reality that you are going to have to spend 4 years unemployed, accruing debt, and then graduating to making nearly minimum wage for another 3-7 years before you are able to actually earn a sustainable salary and can help your family. So I think there are other factors that push people towards a traditional route. My parent actually really wanted me to choose a more lifestyle conducive job, something that could get me a career straight out of my bachelors and earning money, but against my better judgment I chose something way more arduous and I would say risky (who knows if I have a change of heart and decide to drop out).

Once you decide what you want to do, use gap years to build up ECs / XP if you need it for your career path or if you end up in CS/finance/business/primary+secondary education you can just go straight to work.

I really wish I did that.

 

[Deleted member 1077394]

I just wanted to preface by saying that I agree with you, OP. Someone I knew died suddenly pretty young, which was when I came to the same conclusion you have.

I work like a dog (mid-20s nontrad), but I do enjoy life. I just make good use of the time I have. I don't think the two are mutually exclusive.

I text a friend or family member every night and get together with someone most weekend for a few hours.

 

[MedicineZ0Z]

I just wanted to preface by saying that I agree with you, OP. Someone I knew died suddenly pretty young, which was when I came to the same conclusion you have.

I work like a dog (mid-20s nontrad), but I do enjoy life. I just make good use of the time I have. I don't think the two are mutually exclusive.

I text a friend or family member every night and get together with someone most weekend for a few hours.

Yeah worst advice I see younger people getting is to delay fun toys and traveling (or whatever else) until you're older/retired. Incredibly dumb. You can have reasonable finances and still get that high end sports car or travel to wherever and so on. The reality is - many hobbies and other activities are significantly more enjoyable when you're young. And as age goes up = risk of health complications goes up too.
Yes people live longer now due to medicine, but enjoyment of life does decline significantly once health issues set in. Even basic things like eating (good food) or even sex can be largely taken away.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

Yeah worst advice I see younger people getting is to delay fun toys and traveling (or whatever else) until you're older/retired. Incredibly dumb. You can have reasonable finances and still get that high end sports car or travel to wherever and so on. The reality is - many hobbies and other activities are significantly more enjoyable when you're young. And as age goes up = risk of health complications goes up too.
Yes people live longer now due to medicine, but enjoyment of life does decline significantly once health issues set in. Even basic things like eating (good food) or even sex can be largely taken away.

Balance. This is key. If you have children, the cost to educate them will increase by a factor of 3 or 4 depending on the school. The cost of the liberal arts pre med mill went up by a factor of 4 from when I started and my oldest son was born. It went up another factor of 3 from then till he was 18. Look at your school loans.if tuition imcreases at the current rate, you will be looking at around 600k just to send one of them to a private school. What if you have 3 children? There will be planning and sacrifice to achieve this. So my advice, plan early, let the money grow and take advantage of investing over time.
Let your money do the work. Remember to work in some fun or a modest toy. Balance.

 

[Kracin]

I'm a traditional applicant, not married, no family yet. A bit of a ramble but here it goes:

During premed, I made sacrifices to be a competitive applicant. Parties missed, longer hours in the library than my peers. But I still made time for vacations, I tutored for some extra $$ and then used it cost-effectively to travel the country and live my life.

Being a successful applicant, and now doing my best to rock it in medical school has brought me a deep sense of satisfaction knowing I am working hard for something I set my mind to. Tough to see at times (particularly MCAT studying) but I feel like becoming a med student has helped my own discipline and helped my own self-image in my head.

Finally, I have a lot of friends who went to engineering and business. It's challenging that I'm studying similar hours as them (if not more) and the ones working 60-70hrs/wk make $80-120K/yr. However, is their life all that different than mine? I still manage vacations. I still get a fancy meal a few times a year. Sure my financial independence is delayed. Sure I have to be more critical of where I'm spending. But with some skill patience, and discipline, I do feel as if my life is similar to that of my peers. The difference being that my path will be more rigorous, but I'll eventually outearn them and have more stability.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

These days it's pretty tough to both be a successful premed applicant by the time you graduate and enjoy life. I had a good time in college overall but the pressure of doing everything to get into med school was not conducive to a balanced life. For that reason I'm very pro gap years. Gap years were definitely the most fun of my life. Med School *can* be pretty low stress and highly enjoyable or an exhausting slog depending on your career goals.

If I were giving a freshman advice, although theyd never follow it, I would say use undergrad to 100% focus on academics (and research, if you want to be a researcher). Whatever other time you have use it to explore lots of different career options and have fun, be young. Once you decide what you want to do, use gap years to build up ECs / XP if you need it for your career path or if you end up in CS/finance/business/primary+secondary education you can just go straight to work.

There's really only two chances to study something very deeply and learn how to learn and thats undergrad and PhD. If you're not interested in the PhD then undergrad is your one chance. All the other premed boxes done for the sake of the app and not for fun are just taking time away from that IMO.

I agree it's tough but good percentage of students are successful doing it though. I think lot of it depends on study habits, UG choice and maturity. Those who went to competitive high schools and didn't get burned out seems to be doing better in UG.

 

[MedicineZ0Z]

When you dedicate your 20s to medicine and that person in your high school class who was a C student is practicing medicine at age 23: PAs/NPs attempting to "cancel culture" the AMA

 

[jurassicpark]

Enjoy your life no matter what age group you in, period. Enjoying life doesn't necessarily mean going out, boning and drinking like crazy either. You can pursue your passion with zest and zeal and still find time to go do other things you have an interest in, but like everything goals and success often mean sacrifice. You will have to find the happy medium that works for you to get you where you want to be, nothing is free.

Happiest time was med school, you have no real responsibilities. It was like high school all over again only you can legally drink and not worry about disapproving parents.

 

[WildWing]

I highly recommend reading this article: The Tail End — Wait But Why

It has a little bit of NSFW language. It is great for reframing your perspective on time, and understanding how much or little time you have ahead of you (on average).

 

[readmypostsMD]

I find Med school easier than college. No hard courses like physics and gen chem

 

[cacti&kids]

I highly recommend reading this article: The Tail End — Wait But Why

It has a little bit of NSFW language. It is great for reframing your perspective on time, and understanding how much or little time you have ahead of you (on average).

That was a depressing read, but I appreciate the perspective.