The other day I was perusing my wall on Facebook, and I happened upon a post from a friend of mine who was a pre-med with me in college. I knew he had started med school a year before me, and I hadn’t really kept up with him since. Anyway, I decided to see what he was up to, so I went to his page. Much to my surprise, it seemed he was no longer in medical school!
This got me thinking. I am the only one of my group of pre-med friends who is actually in medical school and going to be a doctor. Where did everybody go? A few got married and now have kids and are enjoying their lives as stay-at-home moms. A few, I expect, didn’t get accepted anywhere and have gone on to graduate school or the workforce. And now, I guess some went to medical school and either failed out or decided medicine wasn’t for them.
And then there’s me. Still in medical school. Still chasing the dream.
Now I’m not saying that I am disappointed in my pre-med friends. I am not saying their chosen paths are wrong. I am happy that they figured out what they wanted to do, especially before they got too far into medical school (and too far into debt) to change their minds. I guess it just feels a little lonely. We went to classes together, we studied together, and we all shared this dream and this passion for medicine. And now they’re all gone, and it’s just me.
It kind of makes me wonder what they figured out that I haven’t. Am I the crazy one?
I don’t know where everybody went. But I do know that I am glad I didn’t go with them. Medicine isn’t for everyone, but it is for me. I know I am doing the right thing, probably just as much as they knew they were doing the right thing by bowing out. I wish them all well in their chosen paths, and even though we won’t be colleagues, I do hope we will always be friends.
my first patient 
Remember, Em, when you were so close to that tipping point of going either way – to med school or to “something else”? I think that you would have been happy with life no matter which way you went, but you make the most out of what ever life brings you. I am glad to hear that you are at peace with where you are!
I had a similar realization a couple of months ago. I was on my bed trying to sleep when my mind just wandered away, and I started thinking about how everything was different back in high school. I was a mess, an absolute bunker, back bencher and now here I am, halfway through med school. I still remember my teachers telling me, I needed to change my behaviour as it isn’t favourable for me. I remember when I went to one of my teacher for my reference letter for med school, she reacted by, “SERIOUSLY?!” and I remember how some of the nerdy ones thought, I was just going to make a fool of myself (frankly, I never thought of any other option – It was always medicine.) And now, years later I am in med school and except 2 of the girls from the gang I hung out with, rest all are either married, in business school or other science related fields. But honestly, I have never been more satisfied than I am now even though I hadn’t ever thought through the whole med school thing.