Why I Chose this Profession

When in elementary school I would get asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I was never one of those kids that immediately shouted "fireman" or "cop" or anything like that. My decision to become a doctor came about not because I saw anything particularly "cool in them, but only because I felt like if I could become one, than I was obligated to. In short, I felt like I needed to enter a profession in which I was doing something for people that would save their lives or somehow help them.

With this criteria, there were a handful of job opportunities out there. But I started to look heavily into the medical field, because it fascinated me the most. The way the doctors ran around the hospital in their white coats, working into late hours of the night, always busy with something or other, gave them this profound sense of prestige. It seems far from a job that was anything close to monotonous or boring. At the time I didn't particularly care, but they made BANK too, something that as I grew older, I would value more and more.

So when I started high school, I figured it would be an ideal time to start messing around with some classes that could be similar to what I would see later on if I followed through with medical school. I found myself doing exceptionally well in these courses, and it seemed as if all the roads were in fact leading to Rome. I saw very little input from people around me either opposing or supporting this decision, it was mostly made on my own from what I've seen.

Hopefully after finishing the book I am currently reading for this new project, I will have a much better understanding of the medical field, from the point of view of a student, which is quite a rarity. All of the doctors I'd spoken with until now have been in their late forties or something like that, and told me it was preposterous to consider any other profession. They didn't give me an answer I wanted, they were comparable to grizzled, Vietnam War generals who saw the world differently than everyone else; they had become so engrossed in their work, it had become synonymous with their everyday life. I need someone who can still relate to me somehow, and give me some insight on what it takes to become a doctor, and what it's like after becoming one.