Out of curiosity, what made you decide on medicine?

[jamesrd]

I'm guessing that most people interested in a postbacc had some sort of "aha" moment that made them want to go into this field. I can't see why anyone would want go through this without something powerful happening.

I was a social sciences major, graduated well, worked for a public health research/teaching dept. of a Boston university all through college. Ended up getting a job with a public health department in the area after graduation, still had abosolutely 0 (if I could capitalize a number for emphasis, I would) interest in medicine.

Then I spent a day working in our Infectious Disease clinic, interacting with patients, having the doctors explain xrays, procedures, and lab results to me, and sitting with patients while they were speaking with the MD's about their conditions. That was my "aha". I realized that as much as I enjoyed studying for my degree; socioeconomic disparities, conflict, and their consequences, they all came together in this package. Reading academic papers, doing research, and bringing disparate ideas together to form a coherent idea was fun, but they all come together in that clinic, along with the ability to make change, not simply advocate it.

So share your story, what makes you want to this, was there a moment, are you just dissastisfied with life, or are you simply a masochist?

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[imrep1972]

I have known for a while that I wanted to be a phsycian. I knew I had the talent and ability. Unfortunately, I didn't have the maturity or drive the first time around. So, when I wasn't accepted, I gave up and went to work in the private sector.

Eventually, I came to work as a physician recruiter. The first desire to return to medicine came when I started working with doctors my age who were finishing their residency. I would have been starting my own practice that year had I entered med school after I finished undergrad. That got me thinking.

Then, a few months later, I worked with another doctor, call him Dr. Smith, who was finishing his residency. He had been a mechanical engineer in his previous life and had given it up to return to medical school. He was roughly 45 years old, and when I asked him why he did it, he basically said, he didn't want to sit at the end of his life and wonder "what if."

That's when I knew that I needed to pursue medicine. I gave up to easily the first time around, but it is what I want to do.