Amena,
You have to think about the responses you get. I remember last year--I came out of a 3 hour exam with 200 questions in it, piss hard--and i ran into some kids and parents who were intervieweing that day--and they stopped to ask me how this school was and what i thought of everything-- I couldn't vent my frustrations anymore by telling them, "what the heck do you think, do you think it's fun and glory to study your arse off and then go and take an exam", completely not reflective of what was taught/how it was taught--med school is NOT fun--seriously--i mean it's a huge commitment, you give up LITERALLY a chunk of your life--i mean all this time that i sit in my room and study, i could be enjoyin and doing the thigns i really want to do in life... mean i don't know too many other 21 year olds who study/and do what i do--
BUT--there is a caveat to all this.
Yea, it sucks studying, and yea you work hard to get to where you wnat to be, and yea you give up a lot, but to me the sacrifice outweighs the benefit from pursuing a career in medicine--i have a friend who is a 2nd year medicine resident--4.0 out of med school, 250+ boards (considered REALLY well), and didn't match anywhere---now he is stuck at a bad medicine program and he hates it--so there are a lot of risks and sacrifices you make in medicine, but i think in the GRAND scheme of things, most people decide to pursue it for reasons other than those listed above. So, I would encourage you to think hard about it. Like the earlier poster said, if you're getting into it for the money or prestige or family, etc, PLEASE SAVE YOUSELF THE TIME AND ENERGY AND MONEY in pursuing this career--there are much better alternatives. But, the way i look at it--that we'll all become jaded to a point by the time we're done with residency, we'll all think of what we do as a "job", which is essentially what it is; HOWEVER, the caveat to this is that, at the end of the day, when you come home after a tiring long day and lie down in your bed, you HAVE the ability and KNOWELDGE to do something for another human being which very few people (relatively speaking) can do. And, on a side note, this is what you will hear from a surgeon: having the SKILL that VERY VERY few people have, and that is very gratifying--no matter how hard you've worked, or how tired you are--the ability to do something which very few people can is very prestigious in and of itself--BUT, this only holds true if you're pursuing this career for the right reasons. You will almost never be happy if you choose this for the wrong reasons because it's a long and dusky road ahead.
On a side note, I was terribly scared when I decided to commit myself to med school out of hs (I am in a 6 year program), but it's been good. I am glad I made the decision--it's a good feeling when a patient has cried in front of you because of whatever thing in their life, and you can listen and just even say a few words, and put a smile on their face (obviosuly, this is very idealistic and much of medicine is NOT this, but i believe this underlying altruism is the framework behind whatever you do and ultimately drives a person every day. Others may feel differently, and please feel free to chime in.
Good luck with you future endeavors: I wish you the best of luck.
HT
P.S: My best friend's name is your nick--(that's why i decided to write such a lengthy psot 😀 j/k
