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Random (but Related) Analogy to Medicine
To clarify what I mean in the title, I feel like one trend I've followed throughout my life is that even if I felt passionate about something, I didn't necessarily pursue it because I was taught from a young age (13-14) that doing what's practical and will get you ahead with the least amount of risk is what you should do over how "passionate" you feel about something. Even if you feel more passionate about other options, take the safest option even if it's boring and bland because you can't just make decisions based on emotions all the time.
To put this all into context, when I was 13-14, I was about to enter HS and had to choose EC's for college.
I had quit piano and had started to take up swimming. We had moved to an apartment unit with a swimming pool, so I'd take what I learned from weekly swimming lessons at a local pool and practice my technique, stamina and speed 3-4 times a week.
I was very mediocre at other EC's I had done as a child but made tons of progress in a short time at swimming. I went from someone who feared water greatly to someone who had learned the basics of all 4 strokes in just 1 summer of lessons. Granted, I was no Michael Phelps - I had bad form, poor stamina, and couldn't dive without belly flopping, but the progress was there and I loved swimming. I felt like I'd do anything to get better at it, even if I had to get a job to pay for private coaching to improve my skills.
But when it came to participating in high school EC's, my parents did NOT want me to do swimming or any type of sport.
They stated that it'd be safer for me to do an academic activity because I'd been studying and memorizing and learning all of my life, since age 2-3 - whereas I had just started "casually" swimming at age 13. In their eyes, I had started swimming too late and wasn't freakishly good, so why invest time in this new skill just to be an average swimmer at the high school level with no medals when you could be amazing at the academic EC and get lots of medals?
So Why Does Swimming Relate to Medicine?
So anyway, I know that doesn't relate to medicine at all, but I'm faced with a similar decision now. I'm in a medium-paying full-time job in business. I am not the best entry-level employee there, but I feel that if I work harder, make the right connections and become more assertive/proactive, I can move up there or elsewhere. However, the problem is that just like with the swimming vs. academic example, I don't feel as passionate about it as I might about medicine.
But in my eyes, passion isn't enough for a reason to switch, especially as I still need to take biology, physics, biochemistry, and whatnot and only have a 3.56 sGPA and a 3.79 cGPA. Medicine would definitely be the harder track of the two to get into. I'm also an ORM if that makes a difference and live in California.
So What Did I Want to Ask?
For the other non-trads out there with stable, medium-high paying careers, why did you switch to medicine? Was it passion? To earn higher pay? Did you ever have similar doubts of "Okay well I already have a decent job, why would I take out 6 figures of student debt just to be a doctor just out of 'passion?'"
Because from a very practical standpoint, medicine would be a much greater hassle for me. I'd have to find a post-bacc program that would actually accept me and save for it, and even after that I may not even do well in it and end up with a worse sGPA because I suck at science.
And even if I somehow did well in those classes, I may not get into medical school.
And even if I got into med school, I could fail STEP exams and/or not match into residency.
And even if I matched into a residency, I could be dismissed from that and/or even if I graduated from residency I could be a ****ty AF doctor who gets hit with malpractice lawsuits and sanctions left and right.
To clarify what I mean in the title, I feel like one trend I've followed throughout my life is that even if I felt passionate about something, I didn't necessarily pursue it because I was taught from a young age (13-14) that doing what's practical and will get you ahead with the least amount of risk is what you should do over how "passionate" you feel about something. Even if you feel more passionate about other options, take the safest option even if it's boring and bland because you can't just make decisions based on emotions all the time.
To put this all into context, when I was 13-14, I was about to enter HS and had to choose EC's for college.
I had quit piano and had started to take up swimming. We had moved to an apartment unit with a swimming pool, so I'd take what I learned from weekly swimming lessons at a local pool and practice my technique, stamina and speed 3-4 times a week.
I was very mediocre at other EC's I had done as a child but made tons of progress in a short time at swimming. I went from someone who feared water greatly to someone who had learned the basics of all 4 strokes in just 1 summer of lessons. Granted, I was no Michael Phelps - I had bad form, poor stamina, and couldn't dive without belly flopping, but the progress was there and I loved swimming. I felt like I'd do anything to get better at it, even if I had to get a job to pay for private coaching to improve my skills.
But when it came to participating in high school EC's, my parents did NOT want me to do swimming or any type of sport.
They stated that it'd be safer for me to do an academic activity because I'd been studying and memorizing and learning all of my life, since age 2-3 - whereas I had just started "casually" swimming at age 13. In their eyes, I had started swimming too late and wasn't freakishly good, so why invest time in this new skill just to be an average swimmer at the high school level with no medals when you could be amazing at the academic EC and get lots of medals?
So Why Does Swimming Relate to Medicine?
So anyway, I know that doesn't relate to medicine at all, but I'm faced with a similar decision now. I'm in a medium-paying full-time job in business. I am not the best entry-level employee there, but I feel that if I work harder, make the right connections and become more assertive/proactive, I can move up there or elsewhere. However, the problem is that just like with the swimming vs. academic example, I don't feel as passionate about it as I might about medicine.
But in my eyes, passion isn't enough for a reason to switch, especially as I still need to take biology, physics, biochemistry, and whatnot and only have a 3.56 sGPA and a 3.79 cGPA. Medicine would definitely be the harder track of the two to get into. I'm also an ORM if that makes a difference and live in California.
So What Did I Want to Ask?
For the other non-trads out there with stable, medium-high paying careers, why did you switch to medicine? Was it passion? To earn higher pay? Did you ever have similar doubts of "Okay well I already have a decent job, why would I take out 6 figures of student debt just to be a doctor just out of 'passion?'"
Because from a very practical standpoint, medicine would be a much greater hassle for me. I'd have to find a post-bacc program that would actually accept me and save for it, and even after that I may not even do well in it and end up with a worse sGPA because I suck at science.
And even if I somehow did well in those classes, I may not get into medical school.
And even if I got into med school, I could fail STEP exams and/or not match into residency.
And even if I matched into a residency, I could be dismissed from that and/or even if I graduated from residency I could be a ****ty AF doctor who gets hit with malpractice lawsuits and sanctions left and right.
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