Well I am finishing up my bachleor's degree in the spring, and it will be in education, however for my specialty the job outlook is bleak at best. So I have been seriously looking into med school. I first looked into it as a freshman but my advisor encouraged me to follow my dreams of being a teacher first and then if i still have the urge later to come back and look into it more. Well here I am now, four years later and still have interest in it. However, in order to accomplish I would have to go back and knock out all of my prerequisites. And during this same time my fiance would be attending grad school. However, she is totally against me doing the whole med school thing. she thinks that I will get to deep into it and realize its not for me. Is there anything that I can say to her about it that could change her mind? Or should I just compromise and try to find a teaching job? I really want to persue my dreams of going to med school and becoming a doctor. But, the one person closest to me doesn't support it. I am just conflicted on what to do, or even how to approach it.
Is she not supportive simply because she thinks you won't follow through once you get into it? Or is she opposed because she knows the sacrifices she would have to make? If the former, you should begin shadowing doctors in different specialties, talk to them, and possibly volunteer at a hospital or clinic. You will both see what the life is like and demonstrate interest and knowledge of the field, necessary for admissions. You can then approach your fiance and tell her you have been exposed to the field and you still, definitely want to pursue it, and go from there.
If she is opposed because of the lifestyle required, you will need to first have a frank discussion with her and determine whether med school is something she simply is leery of, or whether it is a deal-breaker for her. Regardless of her position, you will then have to do some serious self-examination to determine whether pursuing medicine is worth the sacrifices even though she is against it.
Don't try to convince her that it isn't that bad, if the lifestyle is the issue. Understand that you going to medical school is a huge sacrifice on her part, and let your actions show you understand that. However, it may be that your desire to be a doctor is so strong that you can't simply give it up and walk away from it (I tried walking away, but it didn't leave me), that it will continue to eat at you, and if you do abandon it to try to save your relationship with her, your resentment may fester and grow until your relationship is destroyed anyway.
As you can see, there is no easy answer. Only you can examine your relationship, what she means to you and what medicine means to you and decide what you should do. It also depends entirely on how strongly she opposes your becoming a doctor, and for what reasons. You can, and should, start learning as much about medicine as you can, through job shadowing, etc. It may turn out you get some exposure to it and decide you don't want to do it, or you would be perfectly happy in a mid-level career which would not be as stressful on your future marraige, avoiding the whole fiance-or-med school decision. By the way, the compromise between her wanting you to stick with teaching and you wanting to be a doctor would be finding a more lifestyle-friendly job in medicine; teaching instead is simply giving in completely to what she wants, the opposite of compromise
😛 Good luck!
