Many people (including those admitting me to postbac and later med school) will be asking the question, "Why Medicine"?
There isn't an easy answer to this, but there are a few things that I can point to. First and foremost, I don't believe that we have only one "calling" in life. I am so much richer of a person because of my experience in ministry than I would have been if I had done the straight pre-med thing. I recently was chastised by one of my colleagues for "abandoning my call" to ministry. I pushed back a bit and told them that I'd much rather be a person who pursues her gifts and passions than to stay in a job that I'm no longer a good fit for because it's comfortable and I can do it. And this is where I found myself over the past year.
I was good at ministry and I liked it. I was comfortable for the most part. But the spark, the fire, the waking up in the morning excited to go to work wasn't there. And the kids I served deserved a lot more than that - I deserved more than that. So I decided to make the jump. When I think about the question, "Why Medicine?" I think of the following things:
1. Not everybody can be a Doctor.
For me this is a huge motivator. It gives me a sense of responsibility. Because the truth is that not everybody can be a physician, even if they want to. It takes a certain amount of intellect and togetherness, drive, ambition, patience and sustained focus. And not everybody is cut out for that. I believe I am, and therefore I feel almost duty bound to pursue it.
2. Medicine is freaking interesting
Through my shadowing experiences (and experiences I've had as a patient), I've gotten to see so many cool and interesting things. Not everybody finds a colonoscopy interesting (probably most people can't wait to get it over with), but seeing it done, looking at somebody's body from the inside is absolutely breathtaking. Seeing a pain management physician provide a patient relief from pains that have obliterated their quality of life is incredible. Watching a surgeon wield their scalpel and literally take apart and re-shape a child's fused skull bones seems super-human. Even just the practice of a physician sitting with a patient, listening, and walking with them through what can be the scariest time in their life is to me of immense value. I know that a career in medicine will give me new opportunities every day and that I will continue to be a lifelong learner. Which is great, because I'm naturally insanely curious.
3. Medicine is ministry
For a lot of people, the jump from ministry to medicine seems like a jarring one, but for me the progression is, in fact, quite logical. In ministry, I dealt with all sorts of things, like counseling and walking beside students and families through difficulties, I coordinated programs with specific aims and goals in mind, I had to think on my feet in situations that were often unclear, I had to communicate well and concisely to a group of people who were squirmy and had sometimes short attention spans. I think you could apply this list of skills almost verbatim to a Pediatrician or Family Practice Doctor. The skills I have built in ministry I believe will translate directly to Medicine - my focus will just now be slightly different.
4. I Want to Help People*
I love serving and helping people. It's something that has always been a huge part of my lifestyle, and I know that this love will translate well to medicine. I put the asterisk because just wanting to help people isn't, frankly, enough. You can help people as a lawyer, or as a preschool teacher, or as a worker for an NGO, or any other number of ways. For me, though, I have seen through my shadowing experience what the help of a good physician can do. For example, in my earliest shadowing days, I followed around a Family Practice Doc in Dallas. This woman did pediatric hospice care, surely one of the most draining and thorny fields any physician could practice within. She saw chronically sick and dying kids with very little chance of recovery every single day. And more than that, she made house calls to her patients (I didn't even know Doctors still did housecalls!). She diligently drove all around the Dallas metroplex, often to areas that most people wouldn't want to venture too near, into peoples' homes, providing care and assurance and support that families dealing with a chronically ill or dying child so desperately need. She had a phone translator service at the ready, and used it in many of her cases to bridge the gap when she didn't speak a family's language. She held and rocked and cared for kids with Trisomy or other genetic issues, she provided palliative care for families whose kids had leukemia or other cancers, and she did it with grace, while providing families and kids the dignity that we all deserve while we're leaving this earth. I have honestly never felt anything like it - and it made me realize that the impact she had on those families will be everlasting. I want that.
5. I Love a Challenge
Medicine is often a complicated game where the rules are just so but also not quite. In every case, you have to piece together the information you have (along with the information you don't have) to treat a patient. I love the idea of tackling new challenges all the time, thinking creatively and critically to help solve problems.
So there's a top 5 for you. There are many more things I could say, but these are the primary reasons.
Stay tuned for an update on my first week as a postbac (preview: I did about 50 hours of Chem homework)!
There isn't an easy answer to this, but there are a few things that I can point to. First and foremost, I don't believe that we have only one "calling" in life. I am so much richer of a person because of my experience in ministry than I would have been if I had done the straight pre-med thing. I recently was chastised by one of my colleagues for "abandoning my call" to ministry. I pushed back a bit and told them that I'd much rather be a person who pursues her gifts and passions than to stay in a job that I'm no longer a good fit for because it's comfortable and I can do it. And this is where I found myself over the past year.
I was good at ministry and I liked it. I was comfortable for the most part. But the spark, the fire, the waking up in the morning excited to go to work wasn't there. And the kids I served deserved a lot more than that - I deserved more than that. So I decided to make the jump. When I think about the question, "Why Medicine?" I think of the following things:
1. Not everybody can be a Doctor.
For me this is a huge motivator. It gives me a sense of responsibility. Because the truth is that not everybody can be a physician, even if they want to. It takes a certain amount of intellect and togetherness, drive, ambition, patience and sustained focus. And not everybody is cut out for that. I believe I am, and therefore I feel almost duty bound to pursue it.
2. Medicine is freaking interesting
Through my shadowing experiences (and experiences I've had as a patient), I've gotten to see so many cool and interesting things. Not everybody finds a colonoscopy interesting (probably most people can't wait to get it over with), but seeing it done, looking at somebody's body from the inside is absolutely breathtaking. Seeing a pain management physician provide a patient relief from pains that have obliterated their quality of life is incredible. Watching a surgeon wield their scalpel and literally take apart and re-shape a child's fused skull bones seems super-human. Even just the practice of a physician sitting with a patient, listening, and walking with them through what can be the scariest time in their life is to me of immense value. I know that a career in medicine will give me new opportunities every day and that I will continue to be a lifelong learner. Which is great, because I'm naturally insanely curious.
3. Medicine is ministry
For a lot of people, the jump from ministry to medicine seems like a jarring one, but for me the progression is, in fact, quite logical. In ministry, I dealt with all sorts of things, like counseling and walking beside students and families through difficulties, I coordinated programs with specific aims and goals in mind, I had to think on my feet in situations that were often unclear, I had to communicate well and concisely to a group of people who were squirmy and had sometimes short attention spans. I think you could apply this list of skills almost verbatim to a Pediatrician or Family Practice Doctor. The skills I have built in ministry I believe will translate directly to Medicine - my focus will just now be slightly different.
4. I Want to Help People*
I love serving and helping people. It's something that has always been a huge part of my lifestyle, and I know that this love will translate well to medicine. I put the asterisk because just wanting to help people isn't, frankly, enough. You can help people as a lawyer, or as a preschool teacher, or as a worker for an NGO, or any other number of ways. For me, though, I have seen through my shadowing experience what the help of a good physician can do. For example, in my earliest shadowing days, I followed around a Family Practice Doc in Dallas. This woman did pediatric hospice care, surely one of the most draining and thorny fields any physician could practice within. She saw chronically sick and dying kids with very little chance of recovery every single day. And more than that, she made house calls to her patients (I didn't even know Doctors still did housecalls!). She diligently drove all around the Dallas metroplex, often to areas that most people wouldn't want to venture too near, into peoples' homes, providing care and assurance and support that families dealing with a chronically ill or dying child so desperately need. She had a phone translator service at the ready, and used it in many of her cases to bridge the gap when she didn't speak a family's language. She held and rocked and cared for kids with Trisomy or other genetic issues, she provided palliative care for families whose kids had leukemia or other cancers, and she did it with grace, while providing families and kids the dignity that we all deserve while we're leaving this earth. I have honestly never felt anything like it - and it made me realize that the impact she had on those families will be everlasting. I want that.
5. I Love a Challenge
Medicine is often a complicated game where the rules are just so but also not quite. In every case, you have to piece together the information you have (along with the information you don't have) to treat a patient. I love the idea of tackling new challenges all the time, thinking creatively and critically to help solve problems.
So there's a top 5 for you. There are many more things I could say, but these are the primary reasons.
Stay tuned for an update on my first week as a postbac (preview: I did about 50 hours of Chem homework)!
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