I Don't Want To Do a Residency...

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Hi all. Second year MD student here. Looking for some advice on what options/paths are out there for an MD student that choses not to go into a residency.
Obviously, I'm speaking for myself. I want to finish med school, get my degree, and switch into a different path (completely unsure and undecided). All I know is that I'm not too keen on doing a residency or doing "traditional" clinical medicine like normal doctors do.
I'm sure at this point many of you may be asking why I came to medical school in the first place. I'm not going to disclose any details, but it was a mix of parental pressure, application and school admission timelines, and the "well I got in so I might as well go" mentality. Like I said, I'm not too comfortable sharing details in regard to any of these, but just know that the universe aligned in such a way that attending medical school just worked for me. Withdrawing and pursuing my other interests is not an option for me (as much as I wish it was). Essentially, I intend to carry through with medical school, just not do a residency.

Aside from all of that, I need some guidance and advice on what is out there for me to do after I graduate, considering I will not apply to and attend a residency program. I obviously have the desire to make use of all this time and money I've invested in medical school, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that while also balancing my other interests and career plans. I want to remain in the science realm of things and make use of my MD, just not in the traditional way.

I'm also 15% open to the idea of doing a residency and just not practicing after (again, because I have no interest). If I follow through with that scenario, what is the "easiest" residency I can do? Is there also an option for something that's not quite a residency, but would allow me to get some post-MD experience and move on with my life after?

Any and all advice is appreciated! Thanks in advance.
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azna123 said:
Hi all. Second year MD student here. Looking for some advice on what options/paths are out there for an MD student that choses not to go into a residency.
Obviously, I'm speaking for myself. I want to finish med school, get my degree, and switch into a different path (completely unsure and undecided). All I know is that I'm not too keen on doing a residency or doing "traditional" clinical medicine like normal doctors do.
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So unless you complete a residency, you wont be able to practice any kind of clinical medicine in this country, traditional or otherwise. You could become an acupuncturist (or something else 'holistic'), but then again you didn't have to go to medical school for that.

Medical school and residency go hand in hand (in fact in some countries they're combined, considered a continuous spectrum of learning/training, if you will). It doesn't make any sense to do medical school and not a residency. Wanna be a scientist? Go to grad school. Wanna be a public health aficionado? Also grad school or an MPH, or an MBA.

If you're really not interested in ever touching a patient, you should consider quitting. Why rack up 2 more years of debt?
 
You should go to therapy (seriously). Unless somebody is paying your bills, you're going to spend the next couple of years in self flagellation because of your parents and "other stuff", as well as rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt that grows at a high interest rate?

Seriously, get some help, you deserve better than allowing misery and fear of family make your life choices for you.

Some other advice: consider setting yourself up for a future in something else better aligned with your interests e.g. J.D. degree, MBA, physician scientist track residency, public health (cdc epidemiology intelligence service comes to mind) etc.

Good luck
 
For the record, I agree with the above, but to answer your question:

1) You could do residency in something like occupational medicine. That seems to be the easiest/most chill specialty

2) You could get a graduate degree from somewhere after your MD (MD may make it easier to get in) in something you enjoy - government, public health, economics? Then you can basically focus on health policy if you like that more, or you can teach undergrad maybe.

3) You could be one of those docs constantly writing op/eds and whatnot about health related news

4) You could get a Master's in nutrition or something and open a clinic

5) Do you have an entrepreneurial spririt? If so, you could do just one year of residency (come on, you can handle one year). Some places allow you to get a full license after just one year. If you can get a license, you can open a medispa and hire nurses/NPs to do everything.

I would say number 1 and number 5 are the ones you should really think about.
 
There are a number of opportunities available to you. Just research on here and elsewhere online.
Some off the top of my head:
-Insurance underwriting
-Medical policy coordinator at one of the big insurance companies
-Working for pharma
-Getting an MBA and then becoming the practice manage of a clinic
-doing something completely unrelated that was the focus of your undergrad degree or of your talents/skills
 
Get a PhD? If you’re young though I would advice at least doing an FM or IM residency before pursuing other things. You might regret having closed that door too early later on in life.
 
I don't think the M.D. counts for much outside of medicine. The only way I even see it being of any use is if you are in politics or business and it gives you a little street cred in medical matters/medical economics.

This street cred is only perception of course and any practicing doctors will know that it is worthless.

I can't think of any good way to transition to another field. I would consider sticking it out and become either a hospitalist or ER doc. Treat your job as a job and collect your 250-350k a year. Find happiness elsewhere.
 
I agree with everything posted above. If you feel that strongly about this, you should consider stopping now since you're still early in your training. Though, I should mention that many people have felt similar to how you're feeling right now at some point in their training. I had thoughts about quiting to do something else in medical school, but stuck through it. Residency can suck, but the time has been flying by.

If you plan to keep going, there are a few options (I know of) for leveraging your MD prior to graduating medical school if you want to pivot. If you're lucky and a good student overall, you should look into the two opportunities.

Consulting fellowship for MD students: MD Fellow | Careers

Degree at Harvard in Education, Government, or Public health/policy for MD candidates: Zuckerman Fellows Program

Good luck!
 
I'm going to guess that the OP's situation is that their entire education is being funded by parents, so that cost really isn't an issue.

The advice above is solid. I'd add that it's possible you might end up interested in one of the less clinical fields of medicine -- radiology, or perhaps pathology. If you're going to complete the degree, might as well be certain that there's isn't some field that might be of interest.

If not, you'll have your entire 4th year to try to pivot since you won't be applying / interviewing for the match. Health Informatics is another choice to consider, if that's your thing. The bottom line is that if you don't want to do clinical medicine at all, you'll need to be creative with how to use your MD to further your career.
 
Echoing the advice to either stop now or complete a residency. Several people are suggesting alternate post-MD pathways like med admin, practice management, or consulting. As a non-trad that came from the consulting space, our company did hire MDs, but almost exclusively those with residency background. The rare exceptions without a residency came from people graduating from super top institutions. Not to mention, a lot of MD hires are working alongside (and doing the exact same work as) people who aren't MDs. I'm not saying that the insights the MDs bring isn't useful but completing med school and taking all your board exams just to do a job that didn't really even require that amount of work or sacrifice doesn't seem to make much sense.

If you are intent on continuing on your current path of finishing your MD with no residency, I'd check out "Drop Out Club" (DOC - Innovative healthcare careers for doctors and scientists). They have non-clinical jobs for MDs and PhDs, and sometimes don't require residency training.
 
OP, I was in a similar position to you at one point in my journey. And I have certainly taken a path less traveled in what I've done and have made mistakes that I am trying to correct. I have to echo what a lot of folks are saying here. If you do not have any desire whatsoever to be involved in medicine in any way, it's really best just to get out now and not waste two more years of a precious life. BUT, if there is ANY chance that you may be interested in doing something even tangentially related to medicine, finish med school and do a residency. There are soooooooo many jobs out there for residency-trained docs that aren't all that clinical in nature but will give you a great paycheck and stability. Also, when economies go south, a residency and board certification opens a LOT of doors for work that otherwise won't be available. Having the BC can open doors even if you decide it's business you want to go into ultimately. If the rigors of med school and its intellectual demands aren't a significant obstacle for you, the greatest advice you will get, if you want to do something "sciency," is to just keep marching forward.
 
I am a current MS3 in a similar predicament. One thing I see mentioned a lot is a preventative or occupational residency. I have done some research on the internet about them but am still not completely sure in what they entail. Do you need to do a preliminary year in medicine or surgery or is it like path with its own 1st year?
 
twospadz said:
MD without a residency is almost worthless. Best lifestyle specialty is psych. You can literally find jobs that let you work from home which will allow you to do other hobbies and interests. Its also the least intensive. I would recommend this.
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Having met people that tried this, gotta say it didn't work out for them. Psych is miserable if you don't like mental illness, and no amount of cush hours can make it tolerable if you're not into it. Preventive and occupational medicine or pathology are probably better bets if you want a chill schedule in residency combined with a bearable life
 
If you truly do not want to have a clinical career, it might be worth getting further education after completing your MD.

PhD - You can get a career in research or consulting.
MBA - Get into business or consulting in business around medical care.
JD - Legal medicine.
Engineering - Maybe use your MD as a way to strengthen a bioengineering path.

The world is your oyster. If you have other markatable skills or you go to a highly respected medical school you could transition directly into pharma or consulting, but it is easier said than done.

It might be helpful if you gave us an idea in fields you are interested in. I would also not shy away from just switching career paths into something you truly want, life is too short to waste on working in a career you have no interest in.
 
I posted this in the other similarly titled thread:

From what I've heard, you really need to do a residency (clinical experience) and have a license to have any credibility. A big pharma company or a healthcare consulting firm is not going to hire someone who just graduated med school but didn't get a license (and didn't do a residency). If anything, you'll raise serious red flags and they're likely to think you couldn't cut it. But more than them just being suspicious, you would likely not have the experience/training to be competitive for those top level jobs (that you will need to pay off your medical student loans). We have a very specialized training that doesn't translate well to the non-healthcare sector. Again, if you have strong clinical (read "rea world") experience, then that can be valuable, but a MD grad with no further training doesn't fit that bill.

As some mentioned, Preventive Medicine is an option. Although, by coincidence, I took a public health course as an undergrad and met a Preventive Medicine resident. I got to know him pretty well, as he kind of became a mentor (only reason I know Preventive Medicine exists). He told me that he and his 2 other residents (I think there were 3 of them in total), all got into it because they didn't like clinical medicine. But at the end of their program they all had to go back to clinical medicine (at least in the short term) because they couldn't find non-clinical jobs. They couldn't compete with PhDs for research jobs and they couldn't compete with MBAs or people years of experience in public health or project management for the leadership/director-type positions. Just a caution about Preventive Medicine in my N=1 experience.
 
beatles1960 said:
I am a current MS3 in a similar predicament. One thing I see mentioned a lot is a preventative or occupational residency. I have done some research on the internet about them but am still not completely sure in what they entail. Do you need to do a preliminary year in medicine or surgery or is it like path with its own 1st year?
Click to expand...

My mentor who I met as an undergrad when I was taking a public health course, is a physician who went back and did Preventive Medicine. He was a hospitalist (internal medicine, no fellowship) for a couple of years. He told me that he and his co-residents could not find non-clinical jobs after they finished. They all went back to clinical medicine.

He told me Preventive Medicine kind of puts you in no-man's land because you're training doesn't make you competitive for a reasearch job, but you also don't get the training or experience to make you competitive for the leadership/director type jobs in public health or healthcare. I haven't spoken to him in years, but I just looked him up and he is back to practicing clinical medicine at what looks to be a FQHC. The other co- Preventive Medicine resident that I remember; I just looked him up and he is a hospitalist. This is only one program, but Preventive Medicine doesn't seem like it's necessarily a direct path to non-clinical opportunities.
 
So if you all notice...status on OP has MD/PhD. So he can just do research and be a scientist. Not sure why they are making all this cuss.....unless they do not want that too. Plus, kind of strange they never replied to thread again.......and have only 1 post. Troll?
 
J ROD said:
So if you all notice...status on OP has MD/PhD. So he can just do research and be a scientist. Not sure why they are making all this cuss.....unless they do not want that too. Plus, kind of strange they never replied to thread again.......and have only 1 post. Troll?
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First, status says I'm an MD/PhD STUDENT... and I explicitly stated in my post that I'm an MS2- a.k.a. second year medical school student.
Second, life happens, I got busy, and never got around to checking this thread again until now.
Third, I made an account on this website specifically to ask this question because I figured this was the best place to get some other viewpoints.
Fourth, how am I trolling with this post? It's a genuine concern that I (and others) have asked on here.
Fifth, as an attending physician I would hope that you would have had more substantial advice to give instead of pointing out what's wrong with my post.
Sixth, hope you finally got some satisfaction with my response!



EDIT: I realized that there was a difference in status options, with "Medical Student" and "MD/PhD Student" being different things. So my apologies on that. Status is now changed. But my other points still stand 🙂

And you're "not sure why [I am] making all of this fuss". Please do explain on how a post like this is me being fussy when, as I mentioned before, it is a genuine issue that I am still working through. If I was being fussy, I wouldn't be making this post in the first place. Again, as I mentioned before, I would hope that you as an attending physician would have provided valuable insight on this matter instead of calling it a "fuss".
 
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azna123 said:
First, status says I'm an MD/PhD STUDENT... and I explicitly stated in my post that I'm an MS2- a.k.a. second year medical school student.
Second, life happens, I got busy, and never got around to checking this thread again until now.
Third, I made an account on this website specifically to ask this question because I figured this was the best place to get some other viewpoints.
Fourth, how am I trolling with this post? It's a genuine concern that I (and others) have asked on here.
Fifth, as an attending physician I would hope that you would have had more substantial advice to give instead of pointing out what's wrong with my post.
Sixth, hope you finally got some satisfaction with my response!



EDIT: I realized that there was a difference in status options, with "Medical Student" and "MD/PhD Student" being different things. So my apologies on that. Status is now changed. But my other points still stand 🙂

And you're "not sure why [I am] making all of this fuss". Please do explain on how a post like this is me being fussy when, as I mentioned before, it is a genuine issue that I am still working through. If I was being fussy, I wouldn't be making this post in the first place. Again, as I mentioned before, I would hope that you as an attending physician would have provided valuable insight on this matter instead of calling it a "fuss".
Click to expand...

Could you possibly be more petulant?
Just because you can’t man up and tell your parents that you don’t want to be a doctor, doesn’t mean you have to actually behave like a child...

You have gotten a lot of advice ..take it...leave it...whatever.

And you are obviously new to SDN...you have not posting rep, come in and say o don’t wanna be a doctor, and then ...nuthin’...it’s not an inappropriate deduction.
 
azna123 said:
First, status says I'm an MD/PhD STUDENT... and I explicitly stated in my post that I'm an MS2- a.k.a. second year medical school student.
Second, life happens, I got busy, and never got around to checking this thread again until now.
Third, I made an account on this website specifically to ask this question because I figured this was the best place to get some other viewpoints.
Fourth, how am I trolling with this post? It's a genuine concern that I (and others) have asked on here.
Fifth, as an attending physician I would hope that you would have had more substantial advice to give instead of pointing out what's wrong with my post.
Sixth, hope you finally got some satisfaction with my response!



EDIT: I realized that there was a difference in status options, with "Medical Student" and "MD/PhD Student" being different things. So my apologies on that. Status is now changed. But my other points still stand 🙂

And you're "not sure why [I am] making all of this fuss". Please do explain on how a post like this is me being fussy when, as I mentioned before, it is a genuine issue that I am still working through. If I was being fussy, I wouldn't be making this post in the first place. Again, as I mentioned before, I would hope that you as an attending physician would have provided valuable insight on this matter instead of calling it a "fuss".
Click to expand...
Take a deep breath
 
rokshana said:
Could you possibly be more petulant?
Just because you can’t man up and tell your parents that you don’t want to be a doctor, doesn’t mean you have to actually behave like a child...

You have gotten a lot of advice ..take it...leave it...whatever.

And you are obviously new to SDN...you have not posting rep, come in and say o don’t wanna be a doctor, and then ...nuthin’...it’s not an inappropriate deduction.
Click to expand...

Please do elaborate on how I'm behaving like a child? I posted this thread, forgot to check it, and came around to checking it last night. Might come as a surprise to you, but this isn't a decision that I had to make overnight and advice from SDN members was the ONLY thing that I was waiting for. I've already learned a lot from the advice that was given and I'm working on a plan that will hit everything I want to do. I'm also not uneducated where I don't know the repercussions of not doing a residency... I have a brain believe it or not. I'm also not stubborn enough to the point where I would NOT do a residency after investing $100k+ and 4 years.

This elitist and self-serving nature that you and many medical professionals seem to have is exactly what deters me and plenty of others away from this field. I came on here looking for advice from people that may have been in my shoes or are currently dealing with the same problem. Not everyone's path is cut out the same exact way, and you attacking my "manhood" and assuming I haven't conversed with my parents about this already is incredibly disrespectful. I didn't come on here to be called "petulant", "fussy", and not man enough. I came looking for advice from people that actually had something constructive to say, which you were not able to contribute.
 
azna123 said:
Please do elaborate on how I'm behaving like a child? I posted this thread, forgot to check it, and came around to checking it last night. Might come as a surprise to you, but this isn't a decision that I had to make overnight and advice from SDN members was the ONLY thing that I was waiting for. I've already learned a lot from the advice that was given and I'm working on a plan that will hit everything I want to do. I'm also not uneducated where I don't know the repercussions of not doing a residency... I have a brain believe it or not. I'm also not stubborn enough to the point where I would NOT do a residency after investing $100k+ and 4 years.

This elitist and self-serving nature that you and many medical professionals seem to have is exactly what deters me and plenty of others away from this field. I came on here looking for advice from people that may have been in my shoes or are currently dealing with the same problem. Not everyone's path is cut out the same exact way, and you attacking my "manhood" and assuming I haven't conversed with my parents about this already is incredibly disrespectful. I didn't come on here to be called "petulant", "fussy", and not man enough. I came looking for advice from people that actually had something constructive to say, which you were not able to contribute.
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The fact that you respond only to those posts that are calling you out show it...they hurt your feeling and you lashed out...you didn’t respond to those that gave you advice...

No one is begging you to go to med school... ok maybe Your parents, but otherwise there are hundreds of applicants would have loved opportunity to be in med school... you taking that spot and not really wanting to continue and not utilizing the opportunity to actually be a clinician has wasted that spot in your med school.

Don t want to be a doctor... step aside and maybe your school can take someone else who will value the chance.
 
azna123 said:
I'm also 15% open to the idea of doing a residency and just not practicing after (again, because I have no interest). If I follow through with that scenario, what is the "easiest" residency I can do? Is there also an option for something that's not quite a residency, but would allow me to get some post-MD experience and move on with my life after?
Click to expand...
I think you've gotten some good advice here; not everyone who goes through med school practices clinical medicine. However I would circle back to this point--you greatly increase your non-clinical options if you can complete residency and become board-certified in something. Specifically you become much more attractive to pharma, but some of those other career paths also open up more with a residency. Which residency makes the most sense probably depends on which non-clinical path you want to do down the line.

You could probably find *something* fresh out of med school, but your options will be limited. I know long-term you don't want to practice clinical medicine, but completing residency and practicing for a year or two will set you up much better to make this career pivot down the line.
 
rokshana said:
you taking that spot and not really wanting to continue and not utilizing the opportunity to actually be a clinician has wasted that spot in your med school.
Click to expand...
I'm gonna push back on this pretty strongly. There's a lot you can do with a medical degree that doesn't involve seeing patients, provided you still complete a residency. This idea that people who go into industry or one of the other paths discussed above are "sell-outs" is just not true--several of my co-fellows have done exactly that and are very happy with their careers. And we do need good, ethical people working in pharma/lobbying/whatever.
 
GoSpursGo said:
I'm gonna push back on this pretty strongly. There's a lot you can do with a medical degree that doesn't involve seeing patients, provided you still complete a residency. This idea that people who go into industry or one of the other paths discussed above are "sell-outs" is just not true--several of my co-fellows have done exactly that and are very happy with their careers. And we do need good, ethical people working in pharma/lobbying/whatever.
Click to expand...
Agreed, I don’t at all buy the notion that anyone owes society a lifetime of seeing patients
 
GoSpursGo said:
I'm gonna push back on this pretty strongly. There's a lot you can do with a medical degree that doesn't involve seeing patients, provided you still complete a residency. This idea that people who go into industry or one of the other paths discussed above are "sell-outs" is just not true--several of my co-fellows have done exactly that and are very happy with their careers. And we do need good, ethical people working in pharma/lobbying/whatever.
Click to expand...
I shouldn’t have said clinician, but if you are in med school with no intention of doing a residency, then the MD is not really of value...even those that go into pharma or lobbying or non clinical medicine need the residency to have the knowledge that come with medicine...pharm usually wants someone with practical medical experience and what lobbyists can truly speak for physicians if they don’t know what the practice of medicine is like.

Health informatics is probably one place that you could do with the MD... but it’s not necessary...he can drop out and go use those 2 years to get a degree in health informatics.
 
azna123 said:
First, status says I'm an MD/PhD STUDENT... and I explicitly stated in my post that I'm an MS2- a.k.a. second year medical school student.
Second, life happens, I got busy, and never got around to checking this thread again until now.
Third, I made an account on this website specifically to ask this question because I figured this was the best place to get some other viewpoints.
Fourth, how am I trolling with this post? It's a genuine concern that I (and others) have asked on here.
Fifth, as an attending physician I would hope that you would have had more substantial advice to give instead of pointing out what's wrong with my post.
Sixth, hope you finally got some satisfaction with my response!



EDIT: I realized that there was a difference in status options, with "Medical Student" and "MD/PhD Student" being different things. So my apologies on that. Status is now changed. But my other points still stand 🙂

And you're "not sure why [I am] making all of this fuss". Please do explain on how a post like this is me being fussy when, as I mentioned before, it is a genuine issue that I am still working through. If I was being fussy, I wouldn't be making this post in the first place. Again, as I mentioned before, I would hope that you as an attending physician would have provided valuable insight on this matter instead of calling it a "fuss".
Click to expand...
No need to get fussy. On SDN, many trolls have a track record of making single post on a, well, troll-like subject. Yours was not the typical post seen in this forum.

Cut your losses now since you don't want be a doctor. As to your parents, you're old enough to vote, drink, drive, run for public office, work, pay taxes and fight and die for your country. Thus, you're old enough to tell them that it's YOUR life and career, and you'll do with it as you please. They love you you... they won't disown you.
 
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@azna123 I wasn't interested in medicine when I was young, I did it to make my parents happy and proud. It's not worth making some else happy and your satisfaction is more important. It is true that medicine is a calling, we all work and study much more than a normal educated person. Now I sort of like my job but I didn't enjoy anything about medschool like my colleagues did.

If you completely hate everything about medicine - science, patient care, bureaucracy, hierarchy and culture in medicine you are wasting your time and money pursuing this career. May be you (like me) will find some aspect of medicine you will like. There is always something for everyone. You can still complete school and do pathology residency - which has good lifestyle, non-clinical and easily attainable.
 
azna123 said:
Hi all. Second year MD student here. Looking for some advice on what options/paths are out there for an MD student that choses not to go into a residency.
Obviously, I'm speaking for myself. I want to finish med school, get my degree, and switch into a different path (completely unsure and undecided). All I know is that I'm not too keen on doing a residency or doing "traditional" clinical medicine like normal doctors do.
I'm sure at this point many of you may be asking why I came to medical school in the first place. I'm not going to disclose any details, but it was a mix of parental pressure, application and school admission timelines, and the "well I got in so I might as well go" mentality. Like I said, I'm not too comfortable sharing details in regard to any of these, but just know that the universe aligned in such a way that attending medical school just worked for me. Withdrawing and pursuing my other interests is not an option for me (as much as I wish it was). Essentially, I intend to carry through with medical school, just not do a residency.

Aside from all of that, I need some guidance and advice on what is out there for me to do after I graduate, considering I will not apply to and attend a residency program. I obviously have the desire to make use of all this time and money I've invested in medical school, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that while also balancing my other interests and career plans. I want to remain in the science realm of things and make use of my MD, just not in the traditional way.

I'm also 15% open to the idea of doing a residency and just not practicing after (again, because I have no interest). If I follow through with that scenario, what is the "easiest" residency I can do? Is there also an option for something that's not quite a residency, but would allow me to get some post-MD experience and move on with my life after?

Any and all advice is appreciated! Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Pathology is the only specialty that essentially has a completely different intern year which still qualifies you for medical licensure. There job market isn't the best, but you don't want to practice anyway so that's not a dealbreaker. With a license it may be easier to pick up an industry job
 
azna123 said:
Please do elaborate on how I'm behaving like a child?
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The part where you called out that everyone should have known that you are in a straight MD program because you said that you are an MS2 despite your profile saying MD/PhD. Every MD/PhD student does a MS2 year, how was anybody supposed to know? And the mistake is quite relevant as if you were an MD/PhD student the advice would be much different. You could do what some students do every year and drop out after you defend your PhD and go do a post-doc and leave behind clinical medicine with an obvious career path.
 
Hello brother-

I would like to start out by saying thank you for sharing these thoughts about your journey thus far through medical school. Openly expressing your concerns and seeking advice not only takes a lot of courage but also self-awareness and emotional intelligence. Many of the people who have responded to you here are simply not on your level. Brother, you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it. Finishing medical school and obtaining your M.D. will no doubt provide you with countless opportunities for more growth both mentally and emotionally. It is not about the financial debt you acquire, it is about what you gain from these experiences and the mindset you develop through these opportunities. Figuring out that you do not want to pursue medicine is a step closer to figuring out what you will eventually pursue... you have one less option to decide from.

I went through most of medical school trying trying to find a passion for medicine and where i fit the role of helping other. When i finally let go and realized what I wanted for myself... I instantly had clarity and the entire world became my opportunity to explore. Shortly after graduating with my M.D., I enlisted into the Army and pursued the special forces xray training pipeline. Two years later, I joined the green beret brotherhood and ironically graduated as a Special Forces Medical Sergeant.. Now I can read, write and speak fluent arabic and farsi.. have built schools and helped engineer and establish water management infrastructure in days, physically capable of living in the mountains of hostile war zones for weeks, jump out of planes across enemy lines, I am an elite sniper rifleman,, and have the opportunity to serve and protect some of the best men i have ever met.

Keep asking questions, everything is an opportunity to grow and learn from.. You can be on the right path and know its final destination. Just keep moving forward.

Good Luck
 
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