Tomorrow is the last day of lecture in my second year of medical school. Day after day of sitting in classrooms will be a thing of the past. As a fun send off before we head into boards studying, we have decided, as a class, to dress as the profession we see ourselves in if we did not go into medicine. Now, these could be realistic or completely impossible. Some students will dress casually because they would be lab scientists or high school teachers. Others want to push the envelope and dress as pilots or cowboys. Cowboys are coming back in a big way. I find myself in-between reality and fantasy. If medicine was not my chosen path, I would try to become an actor. So tomorrow I will be dressing similarly to Johnny Depp.
From a very young age I knew I wanted to be a doctor. This does not mean I did not try my hand at acting. I attended acting camps and have performed in several plays. Once I got to high school, I started planning for my future. Get good grades and get into a good college. Once I arrived at UCSD, I planned for medical school, get good grades, do research and obtain leadership positions. Acting and performing in plays took a back seat. If I had to choose, I would try to be a comedic actor. I would get my start doing stand-up performances around the country until I was discovered. If you give me a microphone I just feel incredibly comfortable. Filling awkward silences is a forte of mine. But this dream is a risky one at best. Unlike medicine, stand-up comedy and acting is not a guaranteed sustainable lifestyle. The chances of me hitting it big are very very slim. If I could apply as much effort as I do to medicine, to comedy, my chances may grow but still no promises are made.
Making people laugh is my passion. In a “Patch Adams” kind of way, I want to heal people through laughter. I guess I couldn’t avoid the aspect of helping people no matter what profession I chose. Dr. Ken Jeong took a safer route. First, become a doctor and then try your hand at comedy in your free time. If you fail, then you can fall back into your practice. This path sounds like something I could see myself doing in the future. But hopefully I will be so happy with medicine and my family, there will be no need for anything else in my life.
