Is Medicine Right for You? The Reasons I chose Medicine

A lot of people have the fleeting idea of choosing Medicine as a career. But how do you know if it's right for you? There are a lot of sacrifices, and an extremely long path ahead so you don't want to dive in with misguided justifications. 

Below, I share with you some personal stories - ones few of my friends know - in the hopes of enlightening you. If you want to do Medicine, you need to be SURE that it's something you can and will commit to. Hope this inspires you to think of reasons why YOU want to do it - not that your parents want it, not for the money or prestige - because if you get into it for the wrong reasons, you WILL burn out. 

Source: http://cbsnews1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2014/01/24/d6bd0d38-cb4a-4411-bd1d-7a5dcc4e319d/thumbnail/620x350/fa75501812b1d1d699dd40da9648001a/stethoscope.jpg

1. My infancy 

My parents told me that when I was born - late and two weeks past my due date - that I was a healthy, chubby and happy baby.

When I was almost 1 month old, they noticed that I became wheezy and short of breath. I also had a red spot growing on my nose. Worried that it was asthma, they took me to the doctors who diagnosed me with haemangioma. Basically this is a benign condition that causes blood vessels to swell and is consequently called a Strawberry Mark. However, this grew in my airways, blocking it and causing me to gasp for air.

If this wasn't quickly reduced, I would die.

Nowadays, this is easily remedied but 20 years ago, the most common method in New Zealand for correcting my issue was surgery. To remove the haemangioma. But my mum said that I was a girl, and would someday wear low cut tops and asked the doctor if there was any other way to correct my problem without leaving a scar.

It took a whole team of doctors and countless hours of research to find a possible treatment.

It worked. I survived.

But I spent 7 months in hospital, and my parents were with me every single day. They tell me that I am fortunate, that a young boy also had the same problem as me but wasn't so lucky.

This inspired me. I wanted to be someone who was able to help others. To give them a second chance in life and to work with other educated, compassionate people to give everyone the best quality of life.

2. I enjoyed and achieved well in Biology. 

When I was in Year 11, I was faced with choosing subject options for Year 12, which would usually be continued in Year 13.

I had always known that I would do something related to science since I was fascinated by it, liked it, and was good at it. But out of Chemistry, Physics and Biology - which ones did I want to do?

I had immediately crossed Chemistry off the list since I wasn't very good at it then - but ended up doing it anyway and actually like it - and decided to go with Biology and Physics. Boy, was that a decision that I dearly regret. I found out that Year 11 Physics was simple, straightforward and easy. I found out that Year 12 Physics was a battle - confusing, incomprehensible, and unattainable.

But my one saving grace is that I decided on Biology. Honestly, I hadn't even considered it, but my form class teacher -also a biology teacher -made a remark upon overhearing my conversation with my friends talking about how crap I was at bio. She said " You might not think so, but you're actually very good at Biology. Out of all the papers I've marked, you show a lot of promise. Why don't you just try it? You've got nothing to lose."

So I did.

And am I glad I did.

I found out that I surprisingly WAS good at it, and continued to get good grades and really develop understanding and interest in it. At that point though, I was still deadset on the idea of being an architecture, or an engineer - since I thought I liked physics and was creative - but one of my friends mentioned that his brother was a doctor and did so because he was passionate about Biology and the Sciences.

That did it.

I began researching specialisations, lifestyles of a doctor and influential doctors. I read a bunch of short stories, autobiographies and journal articles. I decided that I wanted to be a doctor. Finally. Solidly. My conclusion was made.

But I didn't realise how competitive it was and how the odds were not in favour. So all I needed to do was to work my butt off in order to get into one of the most highly sought after courses in only one of 2 universities in New Zealand that offered it.

Piece of cake. A piece of extremely frustrating, complicated and emotionally filled cake.

-Diana