Hey all, to throw a bit of similarity into the conversation, I will tell my story (quickly since emedpa already knows it). I am 31, and have been in medicine since 18. Navy Corpsman age 18, EMT age 20, paramedic age 22, PA age 27, and now first year medical student at the ripe old age of 31. Emedpa must have been my twin brother and we must have been separated at birth. I am starting to like this guy more and more as I read on. Like he, I have taught ACLS for years, have been told that my clinical skills exceed many of my previous supervisors, and I simply was not happy being less than what I felt I was. I think most people who are PA's are happy, but there are always the few who just honestly did not know they wanted to be a physician at that time in their life. I am glad I did it this way. I made a ton of cash over my 4 years as a PA, have a family, am well grounded, and now find myself mostly reviewing in med school. I have been embraced by the school faculty (some at least) and given leadership and even teaching opportunities, and I still work Saturday's to feel human and wear the long white coat. To emedpa, go to it boy!! You will not regret it one bit. It will suck at times when you have to do be graded for instance by a PA as a PA in practicals, but you just have to get over it. I have realized that the world is soon to be at my fingertips. I am in the top 2% of my class, will undoubtedly blow the boards away, thus should be able to get any residency I choose. So is the roundabout way really that bad? Not in my opinion, because now I know I am here because I want to be, and I will be better off financially and career wise because of it. Age wise, yes I will be about 8 years older when I am done than the average young doc, but in reality, most docs work until they die anyway. At least I know I will, because I love it. So no matter how it plays out, I will be able to say I practiced medicine all my life, but the last 30 will have been as a physician. Bottom line, do what makes you happiest, and realize that you can always go back and change your dream to suit your needs!!
Matt