I wanna enjoy life!

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Ellabelle

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I'm a sophomore and a Pre-Med student. Academics has always been a priority in my life but I also believe that life shouldn't ONLY be about academics. I know that I have a long way ahead of me and I wanted to know if it is worth it. I LOVE medicine and I'm really passionate about it but lately I've been hearing from people (especially my Biology professors) that once you're in Med School (and even when you're a doctor) your life isn't gonna be the same. They say it in a very negative way as if you are not gonna have ANY fun in your life. I'm really confused. Are these people right?
I do love medicine but I also wanna enjoy life. I don't want to miss out! I don't wanna turn 50 and look back at my life and realize I haven't really enjoyed it. Please help! I need some advice! This is killing me!
 
Ellabelle said:
I'm a sophomore and a Pre-Med student. Academics has always been a priority in my life but I also believe that life shouldn't ONLY be about academics. I know that I have a long way ahead of me and I wanted to know if it is worth it. I LOVE medicine and I'm really passionate about it but lately I've been hearing from people (especially my Biology professors) that once you're in Med School (and even when you're a doctor) your life isn't gonna be the same. They say it in a very negative way as if you are not gonna have ANY fun in your life. I'm really confused. Are these people right?
I do love medicine but I also wanna enjoy life. I don't want to miss out! I don't wanna turn 50 and look back at my life and realize I haven't really enjoyed it. Please help! I need some advice! This is killing me!
Click to expand...

If you love medicine as you say you do, then doesn't it seem that a career in medicine would be a contributor to your happiness?
 
Medicine's definitely a long-term commitment. You have to pay your dues. But think about it this way. You could work a 9-5 job and have time to hit up happy hour regularly and go out every weekend, but what's so great about that if you're not deriving any sense of fulfillment from your work?
 
Medicine is hard work but you can absolutely enjoy life. Imagine yourself in the future with a 9-5 job that doesn't interest you. You may have some more free time, but would you enjoy your life as much with a soul-crushing job? I think about this every time I start to dread med school and residency. I may have to make some sacrifices, but in the end I believe that I would be unhappy in any other career.
 
When you sign your matriculation agreement, their will be a line about not EVER enjoying life. Along with your ID badge is an ankle bracket/shock collar that tracks your every move. If your not in the library or sleeping, you get 10000 volts of pure pain. (yes you have to poop at the library to save time).
You will never be able to talk to the opposite sex
Only be allowed to sleep every other week for 4 hours
They erase your fingerprints
Be mind raped on every single exam
Mandatory no workouts with a minimum of 100lb weight gain in the 4 years
Disown your family



You know the usual
 
EBTrailRunner said:
Medicine's definitely a long-term commitment. You have to pay your dues. But think about it this way. You could work a 9-5 job and have time to hit up happy hour regularly and go out every weekend, but what's so great about that if you're not deriving any sense of fulfillment from your work?
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TheMightySmiter said:
Medicine is hard work but you can absolutely enjoy life. Imagine yourself in the future with a 9-5 job that doesn't interest you. You may have some more free time, but would you enjoy your life as much with a soul-crushing job? I think about this every time I start to dread med school and residency. I may have to make some sacrifices, but in the end I believe that I would be unhappy in any other career.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to say that pretty much no meaningful "9-5 job" is truly 9 to 5... if you truly invest yourself in a career, you WILL be taking work home with you.
 
StoicJosher said:
Define "enjoying life". If "enjoying life" = getting drunk every other day with your friends, then that is probably not going to happen in medical school.
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+1

'Happiness' is so arbitrary. You have to see if your carrer choice lines up with your definition of happiness. Apply some common sense and see if the lifestyle you want is conceivable while working in the medical field.
 
1281004519_smoking-crab-deal-with-it.gif
 
Aerospace engineer. You get interesting work, albeit not medicine related. But, you do get to observe the long term effects of stress, poor diet, and lack of exercise on a significant population. There are plenty of workplace accidents, and at least one person keels over every year! And the pay is good- just got a raise and am celebrating with a Cuban and Scotch.
 
FSUseminoleEM1 said:
Just wanted to say that pretty much no meaningful "9-5 job" is truly 9 to 5... if you truly invest yourself in a career, you WILL be taking work home with you.
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Not everyone is interested in making their job the focal point of their lives. I work a 9-5 job right now and I have numerous co-workers who are content simply putting in their 40 hours during the workweek in exchange for a regular paycheck. My point to OP was that you could do that and have plenty of free time to have "fun," but you have to ask yourself if you'd find satisfaction with that type of lifestyle. For me, I know I wouldn't, which is why pursuing my interest in medicine, though a demanding career, is worth it to me.
 
You can certainly enjoy life, but you will also be sacrificing a lot no matter how much you love medicine.

Time for choices. 👍
 
wildcherry said:
Ok, so the last two years of Medical school are hard and you have to be fully committed. Then residency is the same story, then maybe a few years after that. But can't a doctor also work 9-5? Sure, he might make less than others who work a lot more but really is anything stopping you from working 9-5 or similar hour? Sometimes it seems like doctors HAVE to work 14 hours a day and are doomed if they pick this profession, etc etc. Isn't it up to the individual how much he/she wants to work?
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Emergency Medicine. 3 shifts a week, 3 weeks a month. Perhaps the only specialty that responds to higher pay by simply working fewer hours.
 
You get out of life what you put in OP. Make your own choices and do what ya gotta do.
 
Ellabelle said:
I'm a sophomore and a Pre-Med student. Academics has always been a priority in my life but I also believe that life shouldn't ONLY be about academics. I know that I have a long way ahead of me and I wanted to know if it is worth it. I LOVE medicine and I'm really passionate about it but lately I've been hearing from people (especially my Biology professors) that once you're in Med School (and even when you're a doctor) your life isn't gonna be the same. They say it in a very negative way as if you are not gonna have ANY fun in your life. I'm really confused. Are these people right?
I do love medicine but I also wanna enjoy life. I don't want to miss out! I don't wanna turn 50 and look back at my life and realize I haven't really enjoyed it. Please help! I need some advice! This is killing me!
Click to expand...

What sort of things to do consider fun? Going out with friends? Sports? Maybe you just need a break before med school. You seem pretty overwhelmed.
 
Med school is hard but it doesn't have to consume your life.

First couple years--like undergrad time three. Your hours depend in large part on your school, but many only have classes in the morning. I only studied in the afternoons at school and took evenings and weekends off except for the week leading up to tests (my school has tests grouped together at the end of the block), and I did fine.

Third year is the most demanding in terms of hours. There will be rotations (like surgery) where all you do is work and sleep. But those rotations end eventually too.

Fourth year is nice (or so I hear). You are done with all your required rotations so you only do the ones you want to do. Lots of people take vacation, get married, etc. during 4th year.

Residency and your career really depend on what you want to do. Residency isn't easy, but there are definitely specialties with better hours (<60hrs/week) than others. After residency, life is what you make of it. Some specialties are amenable to you working less as long as you are fine with working less. I wouldn't go into a specialty purely for lifestyle though--doing something you hate just for the hours is going to make you miserable as compared to longer hours in a specialty you love.
 
The best thing i think you can do is spend a few years working in the real world. I used to feel exactly as you do. It used to be my main fear in what seemed like otherwise the right field for me. Then I spent a few years just working, and now i have a hard time understanding what i was worried about.

As a sophomore in college, life still feels like it is about experience above all else. Your task right now is entirely self-focused (and should be): spend all day improving yourself through education, with a side of wonderful enriching international/language/travel experiences, good friends, and in-the-bubble risk taking. At the center is adventure, excitement, falling in love, "having a life". It is only in the back of your mind you are aware that you do HAVE to have a job, and that even after graduation you will not be qualified to provide any services of value.

But soon enough (and i mean 4-5 years out of college, not right out of college) all of your friends will begin settling into a different place. The central task of adulthood, you find, is letting go of those old priorities and building two things: your close personal relationships and your life's work. The adults I admire most are people whose focus isn't on the details of their lives at all -- they spend all of their energy working on a problem outside of themselves. After a certain age, people who meet you will ask only one question: "what do you do?" And that's not just superficial social fare, it is because for many adults, what problem you work on is among the most defining features of who you are.

Which isn't to say that medicine is right for you, necessarily. Of course, some people find they are happiest with a simple 9-5 job that just pays the bills, often because the central work of their lives is elsewhere (in the home, in a hobby, whatever). Just wait to cross medicine off your list for lifestyle reasons. I used to feel exactly the way you describe, and these days I WANT to work hard, and i want my job to be a big part of my life.
 
Feel the same as you, but remember work hard now, enjoy later.
 
If you are having doubts at this time, I am not sure how you will look brighter at it in a few years.

Medicine is not fun, medical school is a living Hell and residency feels like you are on probation for murder.

No, just my thoughts. I had no doubts until the midst of residency, but still stuck it out 10 years after that.

The future of being a physician also looks grim and the combination of astronomical student dept, chronic fear of law suits and no appreciation at the end makes me unable to recommend this for anyone else at this moment.

Whatever you do, choose for yourself, good luck!
 
DrMason said:
If you are having doubts at this time, I am not sure how you will look brighter at it in a few years.

Medicine is not fun, medical school is a living Hell and residency feels like you are on probation for murder.

No, just my thoughts. I had no doubts until the midst of residency, but still stuck it out 10 years after that.

The future of being a physician also looks grim and the combination of astronomical student dept, chronic fear of law suits and no appreciation at the end makes me unable to recommend this for anyone else at this moment.

Whatever you do, choose for yourself, good luck!
Click to expand...


Uhhh.

You're like 4 years too late, man.
 
All of my friends that are pediatricians are very happy and love their job. They don't make a ton of money but they work for the hospital and have regular hours and rotate being" on call". Had most of their loans paid off through "special programs working with the under served" It took a while to get to that point but they're still young and there happy now. I would take that happy life for $200,000- $300,000. That's enough for me.
 
wildcherry said:
Sometimes it seems like doctors HAVE to work 14 hours a day and are doomed if they pick this profession, etc etc. Isn't it up to the individual how much he/she wants to work?
Click to expand...

It is up to you how much you want to work, but unless you work for yourself, whoever is your "administrator" will make sure you work enough at home or in spare time to finish charts, sign this, sign that. The RVU system will also ensure you are exploitet optimally. Some QI people came and tracked our docs as they Allen throughout the day. Afterwards, some of us were even told how to "just do minor paperwork" while eating lunch.

Otherwise, the notion of "paying your dues" in residency and medical school is not so real any more. It's a matter of a few years until physicians and CRNA's make the same (or CRNA more). I know a medical assistant that made almost 100 K in a year preparing charts for utility reviews.

Our leaders have sold us out to cheapest bidder and it will not get better, IMHO
 
I only bring up happiness and money because I find that when people ask questions like this on other threads, many premeds make becoming a doctor seem like a miserable choice . most of the doctors I know are happy. I do know some that don't seem happy though but I can't believe that that is the norm. I'm being optimistic
 
I quit taking the opinion of negative nancies. It takes maturity and years to sort through good advice but if you go around looking to deter you from the path you want, it'll never look that great retrospectively (maybe for some it'll work out though cause as humans, we are just extremely good at making ourselves find meaning in surviving the way we do). Go out and smell the fresh air. The best (or possibly the worst...we'll find out) decision I could have done was quit everything and volunteered at the hospital. I had never done this formally and meeting patients is the highlight of my week...every week for sure! I love what doctors do and so far each and every single physician's work is really interesting. I'm happy that when I go into medicine, I really won't mind going either primary or specialty, they are all really amazing and noble to do. It also helps that I've worked a real job and I know this one important message.........DO NOT SACRIFICE YOUR INTERESTS BASED ON MONEY. This is the absolute worst choice you can make for your life because I survived just fine with a stable job that worked me to the bones but you know what...so does every damn near job out there.
 
Citygirl44 said:
All of my friends that are pediatricians are very happy and love their job. They don't make a ton of money but they work for the hospital and have regular hours and rotate being" on call". Had most of their loans paid off through "special programs working with the under served" It took a while to get to that point but they're still young and there happy now. I would take that happy life for $200,000- $300,000. That's enough for me.
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I think I've really found my niche in pediatrics (which isn't surprising cause my dad is always right...; I'm accepting that grudgingly). It's always some plus to ask your parents what type of person they think you are because they may be right. Don't know what I will do but pediatrics really teaches you about very good parenting skills so just love the whole atmosphere.
 
Petrichor1 said:
I think I've really found my niche in pediatrics (which isn't surprising cause my dad is always right...; I'm accepting that grudgingly). It's always some plus to ask your parents what type of person they think you are because they may be right. Don't know what I will do but pediatrics really teaches you about very good parenting skills so just love the whole atmosphere.
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Parents really do know you / your personality best. My mom is a pediatric nurse practitioner. And being around her and her pediatrician friends really influenced me. And I love being around children, if I did decide to ever do a specialty it would have to involve children.
 
Citygirl44 said:
Parents really do know you / your personality best. My mom is a pediatric nurse practitioner. And being around her and her pediatrician friends really influenced me. And I love being around children, if I did decide to ever do a specialty it would have to involve children.
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well said. After many years of trying to find myself, it's impt that once you do find a good field or fit, you really don't want to let go of it. It's much more fun to just dive right in and develop your roots cause floating around only leaves us miserable.
 
Here is an article in positive psychology about what it means to live a full life: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1693422/

Do you want engagement, just plain positive affect, meaning, or all of the above? Do you think that you would get the most of all 3 in medicine or not?

These are questions you have to ask yourself. The most this forum can provide for you is information about the path of medicine so you can make a calculated judgement when you compare this route to any other.
 
mistafab said:
Here is an article in positive psychology about what it means to live a full life: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1693422/

Do you want engagement, just plain positive affect, meaning, or all of the above? Do you think that you would get the most of all 3 in medicine or not?

These are questions you have to ask yourself. The most this forum can provide for you is information about the path of medicine so you can make a calculated judgement when you compare this route to any other.
Click to expand...

Ya'll realize that the OP hasn't been here on SDN in over a year, right? Obviously, she found something that makes her happy... and it's not here.
 
What do your professors know? Unless they're MDs/DOs, their view of medicine is irrelevant.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
 
DrMason said:
If you are having doubts at this time, I am not sure how you will look brighter at it in a few years.

Medicine is not fun, medical school is a living Hell and residency feels like you are on probation for murder.

No, just my thoughts. I had no doubts until the midst of residency, but still stuck it out 10 years after that.

The future of being a physician also looks grim and the combination of astronomical student dept, chronic fear of law suits and no appreciation at the end makes me unable to recommend this for anyone else at this moment.

Whatever you do, choose for yourself, good luck!
Click to expand...
There's your answer OP.

The life of a physician is so busy that it took this guy four years after he opened the thread to reply.
 
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