I’m not your typical med student. I’m old. I had a whole different life before this, in Europe. Even though I had wanted to become a doctor since I was a little kid, for one reason or another (money, timing, fear I wouldn’t make it), I decided to do something else. Then I got a job, my first real adult job. I had a really good life, everything seemed to have finally fallen into place. Except I was miserable. I was bored. I liked my job, but couldn’t help thinking that if I didn’t show up for work, the world wouldn’t notice. In the grand scheme of things, my job didn’t matter. I was not making the world a better place. I was wasting oxygen.
Queue in a major depressive episode, and wondering where I went wrong. Luckily, I have an amazing friend who helped me see what I needed to do next. I kept saying “I’m tired of wasting my time doing nothing that matters!” And he said, “Well if you could be anything in the world, what would you do?” And my immediate response was “medicine” followed by “but I can’t do that.”
Why not? He asked.
Because I’m too old. Because I’m not smart enough. Because I already have this whole other life set up. Because I would have to go back to Uruguay, and medical school takes 6 years there. Because…
It took time, but one by one, the excuses were refuted. The least I could do was try to fulfill my dream.
So packed my bags and left the comfortable life I had, to go back to my home country (Uruguay) and become a student again.
And it was the best decision of my life.
“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” -Earl Nightingale
There is no wrong way. There are only choices left for later. 🙂