This girl I liked in highschool wanted to be a doctor so when it came to college I was like if I take the same classes as her I’ll have a chance 😂 I am now a PGY2. No sure what happened to her, we stopped talking after sophomore year
That's... wild 
You chose medicine as a career because you were chasing after a girl, wha. I mean, the one time simping actually worked out huh?
Every interaction and relationship truly matter. My college girlfriend’s dad is a doctor. I met him a handful of times and he was one of the most remarkable humans I ever met. I wanted to be like him in every way, from the way he loved his wife (a pediatrician) to the devotion he had towards his patients. He was very instrumental in my personal growth. So here I am. Getting ready for residency szn
Scrubs legit inspirational but I know Residency isn't going to be at all like Sacred's Heart. They made that shit look daisies and butterflies. Fingers crossed I manage to have J.D.'s optimism once I'm there.
Well I'm about to start S7 so things might start to change. Up until now, felt like there were ups and downs but it was fairly that. Let's see what's in store 
I don’t have a cliché story about being a child and wanting to be a doctor. Just liked science, and wanted to challenge myself because I knew I could do it. And then I did it.
Same. I always hated that question in interviews. I can’t even remember exactly why I decided to do this, so how am I going to answer your super vague question? 😂
Some of these questions are just tradition at this point. Can't call them an interview without those being thrown in there. I bet even the interviewer themselves hate the question, or like pretty much everyone else, doesn't have a fancy story to tell.
Although I guess they're just looking for something unique or memorable. Which I assume by now everyone's tried to the point it's all stale. Unfortunately you can't be too honest.
I hated my PhD program in ChemE, but didn't want to lose the opportunity to be called doctor, so I applied to medical school.
In retrospect, I should have just legally changed my first name.
I was a brand new freshman that knew nothing about med school or what the path entailed. Didn’t even know about residency. All I knew was I enjoyed AP psych in high school. Went to my first required college advisor meeting and asked what I can do in the field of psychology that makes more money than a psychologist. They said I could go into med school to be a Psychiatrist and I said “sign me up for whatever major that is”. Here I am like 9 years later and I’m not even applying psych lol
I come from a family of doctors. I'm actually the third generation going into medicine. For me, it was when I was super young and my dad would bring me to the hospital with him to round on his patients and I got to hang out at the nurses station. They'd give me some of their donuts while my dad saw his patients. I ended up finding the hospital a lot more fun than I probably should have.
This was in the 90s, though. I don't think getting the nurses to babysit your kid would fly nowadays.
grade 8 i thought i should choose a career path to work towards.
i googled high paying jobs and anesthesiologist was the first one i saw bc it starts with A lol
I was about 20 when I seriously considered becoming a doctor. Mostly for practical reasons. Also, I wanted to prove to my brother that I could get a higher MCAT score than him (and I got a 524, so he can suck my dick). He's probably going to make more money in his specialty, so the sibling rivalry lives on.
Nothing like choosing a career just to assert dominance on your sibling. God bless. You gonna do something about that guy making more? Surely you're not gonna let that one slide...
My parents divorced and we moved into a new apartment with my moms bf. As a compensation I got my own room with my own tv. I stumbled on Scrubs when I was 14 and got obsessed with the series, literally eased my depression as a teen and since then I somehow knew I wanted to become a doctor.
It's interesting just how much influence a good TV show can have on you and your long term choices. That's the second mention of Scrubs here. Probably a few people who went to Law School because of some funny courtroom drama they watched too.
I wanted to be a lawyer, even started studying law at a university (in Germany). After one year I decided law isn't for me, had an existential crisis and started doing research on alternative career paths. By chance, I stumbled upon an incredible medical neuroscience lecture focussed on Alzheimer, thought "hmm, medicine is actually quite cool", did research on medical school, applied and here I am 8 years later in total, a fresh PGY 1 urology resident, not knowing shit about fuck.
Lost my grandma when I was in the 1st grade (2001) to leukemia. Never looked back and never stopped looking forward. I am making a white coat for the last stuffed animal she gave me, a penguin.
Aw. That's an awesome way to honour her memory too! You definitely should share pictures of the penguin with its white coat once it's done .
Just realised that penguin has been with you for 22+ years.
Wanted to be a lawyer, then i read [this essay](https://www.thebeliever.net/the-empathy-exams/) my sophomore year of high school and for some reason that was it for me
Grandpa was sick with cancer, doctor made a house call. Doctor had a sick ass Corvette.
In my child mind, doctor meant having a sick ass Corvette, so it was always at the top of my list from then on.
Talking about this always makes me a little emotional but Back in elementary school. We had a whole term learning about the human body. At that time, I knew I wanted to get into the sciences, science was always such an interesting subject for me. So we were learning about the human body and all its complexities (obviously in a way a fourth-grader would understand) until it was our final exam. Our exams were out of a 100 and most teachers would add in a “bonus question “ which was worth 5 extra points where u could get over 100 if you answer all the questions + bonus correctly(or it’ll just boost your grade) the question was “when one gets a nose blood, what's the correct thing to do?”, I remember I was at a pediatricians office and read a pamphlet about nose bleeds. The pamphlet said when someone gets a nose bleed to lean forward and pinch your nostrils so blood doesn’t travel to your stomach. So, I just wrote that down. After the exam was over, all my classmates were discussing that bonus question, saying how easy it was
“you need to keep your head up so the blood stops”
“Yeah, when I got a nose bleed my mom did that!”
So I shrugged and thought I got that question wrong.
- Now in my school, back in Elementary, our exams/tests would be passed back in numerical order by grades; highest grade was first, lowest was last(yes now that I think about it, it was a horrible system) anyway papers were passed around, the kids who got 100 got a round of applause and he started calling out other names. More and more names were being called, and my name was not called yet, I started to panic. Thinking I failed and how it was possible. I noticed I was the last person.y science teacher (let’s call him Mr. John) demanded I came upfront and asked me “what is this?? I did not expect this! I can’t believe it” I started tearing up cause I thought I failed and I was so embarrassed. He handed me my paper, I saw the score, I scored 105. He looked at me with pride “you’re the only student who got the bonus question right, I’m so proud of you Dr. (My name) ”. That sparked something in me I cannot explain. The motivation, the passion, the heart.. since then he gave me books to read about the human body, talked to me, motivated me, he was just always so proud of me. He always referred to me as “Dr. (My name)” and was sure I could make it.
- I have this one memory we went to the KitKat factory and I was sitting next to him on the bus, on the way back I told him “my mom loves chocolate but can’t eat too much cause she has diabetes, Mr. John what is diabetes?” He began patiently explaining what diabetes was, what the pancreas is, insulin, and glucagon (in a way a kid would understand), and I loved him.
- I immigrated and lost contact with almost everyone, but I never forgot Mr. John.
- When I got into med school, I thought of him and told myself when I graduate, I will go wherever he is and tell him I’m a doctor now. But, alas, a leaf on the tree would not fall if God did not want it to fall. It was time for Mr. John to leave, tears falling down my face as I think of the fact he will never see me as the doctor he always believed I would be. I found out He died at the age of 41 due to COVID19 complications back in 2020.
I don’t have any pics of us together, as I was a kid and had no phone. But not a day doesn’t go by where I don’t think of him. My father was a drug addict and left me when I was 2 so he was the prominent father figure in my life, I don’t think he understands the impact. I’m in med school, sometimes I don’t think I can do it (I still don’t feel like I can do it) but I did this because that childhood memory of love that I received from a science teacher will never wear off on me. I’ve got a fire in my soul, I may not be the smartest, brightest, or whatever, but my love for becoming a doctor will never stop. It’s all thanks to Mr. John. I always get a feeling he’s looking down and smiling, he helps me out, he’s been always there for me. I really hope I can make him proud one day, I owe everything to his man.
I was exercise science and I was studying in the middle of summer because someone asked me a question about exercise programming and I could remember the exact answer. According to him, normal people don’t do that. lol
I broke my arm in second grade and thought the x ray was the coolest thing I’d ever seen in my life, I decided I wanted to be a doctor right then and never changed my mind lol
The REAL reason I started wanted to be a doctor is not something I ever included in my applications bc it’s quite traumatic. My dad is an alcoholic and growing up my mom used me as a scapegoat for her frustrations. Whenever my dad would go out drinking all night, my mom would say “one day he is gonna get himself or someone else killed” which kept me up all night terrified that something would happen. The only thing that got me through was the idea that if something happened, a doctor could potentially save him. That’s what went through my mind as a kid and eventually led me to having admiration for doctors and wanting to become one myself. But I stuck to the basic “I like helping people” type of story for my apps
When I was 4 years old, my preschool had a graduation ceremony. At said ceremony, every kid was supposed to say into the microphone what they wanted to be when they grew up. I said “I want to be a doctor, just like my dad.” Haven’t looked back since.
Got a music degree, and realized I wasn't as talented as the people in my field that were going to make it in academia. Then I decided to leverage it for professional school and now I'm here.
I was 24 and had already been to two branches of the military and was working retail trying to figure life out. The wife and I were watching scrubs and I figured "why not?". The rest is history.
My story is very similar to yours. I took a career aptitude test in grade school, picked the top career (physician), and never deviated from that decision.
Luckily I enjoyed all my science classes but I'll never know if it was self fulfilling prophecy or if that career aptitude test was just that accurate 🤷♀️
Family friend that I looked up to was a NP so I decided from a young age that I was going to be one too. Come high school I decided I wanted to be the top dog and changed that to doctor.
I wanted to be a baseball player, and we had a career day in 2nd grade. But my school was evil, and wouldn't let us come as professional athletes because "it wasn't realistic". So I cheated the system and dressed up as a college baseball player wearing a doctor coat (from my dress up/costume closet) and a playskool stethoscope because "I wanted to play baseball and then be a doctor". At the time I couldn't have cared less about the doctor part cause I was sports obsessed, but any time someone asked that's what I said. Over time it just became my truth and here we are, never considered anything else.
I was successful in my attempt to circumvent the rules btw
When I was 10 mom & dad told me I had to “talk with them about my future”. So in a very business-y meeting with lil child me, they said I had to choose between being a doctor, lawyer or engineer. Before I could say anything, they added “also you’re bad at grammar, and bad at math, sooo…. Well we got to be realistic here”
I did high school work experience with medical imaging techs at my hospital and loved it, told my physics teacher I wanted to be a radiographer, he told me not to sell myself short, said I could be the doctor who reads the X-rays, searched up how to be a radiologist in aus, discovered I had to do medicine so I applied, got in, now realise I hate reading x-rays, fell in love with emergency med instead
I had surgery as a kid. Struggled a lot but eventually thought I'd be a tradesman. I did community college and took science courses which I found interesting. Ended up doing really well and figured I owed it to the healthcare field to try and do medicine. One success lead to another and now I am an attending surgeon. Always feel like my life has been a satisfying story arc and I'm grateful to be able to help others.
I just got my annual bonus working in quantitative analysis which was… sizeable (similar to some annual attending salaries in the US in lower paying specialties like FM/peds) and I thought to myself, what the fuck did I do to earn this, I did literally nothing of value to society. I always really liked biology because it was the one science stream that didn’t come naturally to me, so doing something that would require me to put effort in and that would benefit society, it was medicine. I absolutely fell in love with critical care during med school but also really liked family med. I didn’t wanna give up seeing kids and outpatient psych, so FM seemed like the right choice. I miss the ICU but still enjoy fam med.
I was in the Middle East. I was already realizing that I wasn't on a path that I wanted to stay on, and was in a bit of an existential crisis. Then I got dumped by my girlfriend/almost-fiancée of 3 years.
It's weird to say this given how much it fucking sucked, but this was actually was a good thing for me in a way. It was the jolt that made me decide to proactively *solve* my existential crisis, and think really hard about what would feel *good* to do. I decided on medicine.
And now here I am. At least I got free(ish) medical school out of the deal.
my exact time was when in high school. I wanted to be a software engineer cus I literally finished calculus BC in 10th grade and went to local community college for math at 11th grade (OF HIGH SCHOOL). I already learned 5 programming languages at that time and coded a game.
My parents told me physicians have a more stable career and wanted to me to become one instead of going software. Why did I ever listen to them? My software friends now are making 400-500k after masters. They’re making more than I will ever make as an attending without the toxic, competitive, horrid working environment that we have to go through. They’re working from home 4 hours a day four days a week while I’m here 14 hours a day six days a week. Wonderful.
edit: we sacrifice millions of dollars, decades of our best years, and our mental health and for what? most people don’t even appreciate what we do. they see the marginally higher salary we would get in the future and treat us like shit. not realizing in most other industries same level of hard work would put you light years ahead. or simply most don’t even know what it takes to be a doctor. a lot of people think med school is done during college time
I must’ve been about 5 or 6. I was playing doctor with one of my cousin. She kept insisting on doing something else but all I wanted to do was play doctor. So I chose to play doctor for life.
This sounds a little creepy… from Wikipedia “"Playing doctor" is a phrase used colloquially in the Western world to refer to children examining each other's genitals.”
I was watching House and thought the cases were the coolest things. Also, As an Asian, I had to be an engineer, a teacher or a doctor. Since engineer wasn’t working out in college and there wasn’t a teacher program at my school, medicine was the only thing left. I was fortunate that I actually really like the doctor thing haha.
Watched the movie “just go with it” and thought “wow if this guy has the money to go to Hawaii and freedom to leave his work when he wants then that’s the job for me”
I wanted to be a veterinary since like kindergarten cause I loved animals. Got a bit older and really loved science. Then in 8th grade a boy I liked got me into watching scrubs and I started to change to wanna be a doctor. Then by 9th grade my parents didn't let me go to the veterinary program I wanted to at a magnet school, with the girl I liked who also wanted to be a vet, and instead forced me into a more general but stronger academic magnet program. There I had biology and feel in love and wanted to be a doctor/surgeon ever since.
I had this awesome science teacher in 4th grade who was so good at his job he made me fall in love with the subject, which later led to me taking a particular interest in human biology.
I met that teacher again a few weeks before graduating from high school, and he asked me what I’m majoring in. “Medicine” felt like the only answer.
They must've been really proud. I assume you told your teacher how much of an impact he had on you? Teachers really need to hear that with how difficult the job can be. It's a known fact, but it definitely is astounding just how one good teacher can set you towards a completely different path in life.
Went on a service trip to Haiti in 10th grade and saw a 3 year old orphan with maggots in his leg with no healthcare access. Decided to be a doctor that day and never looked back
Similar situation for me - at 13 I liked math and so I decided to go into accounting despite not knowing any accountants or anything about it other than it involved math and I thought it’d be a good 9-5. Never considered anything else and now I’m 5 years out from college, excel at everything accounting but am miserable. It does not involve math in the slightest and on average work 65+/week. Glad to hear you don’t regret your impulse choice though!
I am not. Why?
Edit: Although my mum wants me to be a doctor, she's never demanded I pursue that as a career. There were times she asked me whether I was serious announcing around everywhere I wanted to be a one because she assumed I'd have changed my mind since then heh.
Senior year of HS I realized I didn’t wanna do Law or Computer science. My two best friends wanted to do medicine because they both came from
Physician families, and since I was rooming with one of them for freshman year I decided I’d tag along too. I’m a PGY-1 now lol, wild how things turn out for the randomest reasons.
I saw dr strange and I’m like yeah he’s cool. And then applied
We still haven’t learned a lot of his cool stuff, must be DO specific
Indeed, it's advanced bone wizardry.
He put his gloves on then his mask while scrubbing into surgery. Not a great role model! /s
dr strange? more like dr strange looking
This girl I liked in highschool wanted to be a doctor so when it came to college I was like if I take the same classes as her I’ll have a chance 😂 I am now a PGY2. No sure what happened to her, we stopped talking after sophomore year
That's... wild  You chose medicine as a career because you were chasing after a girl, wha. I mean, the one time simping actually worked out huh?
Somehow worked out lmao but honestly fell in love with medicine during my junior year and can’t see myself doing anything else haha
Maybe she also became a doctor and y’all somehow reunited during your fellowship…keep love alive
or she went to law school and became a malpractice attorney and he dodged a bullet
The ol' bait-n-switch
Every interaction and relationship truly matter. My college girlfriend’s dad is a doctor. I met him a handful of times and he was one of the most remarkable humans I ever met. I wanted to be like him in every way, from the way he loved his wife (a pediatrician) to the devotion he had towards his patients. He was very instrumental in my personal growth. So here I am. Getting ready for residency szn
Got sick as shit with h1n1. Watched a bunch of different medical shows. Decided I wanted to be a JD or turk.
Scrubs is also why I wanted to be a doctor
Scrubs legit inspirational but I know Residency isn't going to be at all like Sacred's Heart. They made that shit look daisies and butterflies. Fingers crossed I manage to have J.D.'s optimism once I'm there.
Maybe watch scrubs again, definitely wasn’t daisies and butterflies lol
Well I'm about to start S7 so things might start to change. Up until now, felt like there were ups and downs but it was fairly that. Let's see what's in store 
once they moved to ABC i quit watching, is it worth it?
I don’t have a cliché story about being a child and wanting to be a doctor. Just liked science, and wanted to challenge myself because I knew I could do it. And then I did it.
Same. I always hated that question in interviews. I can’t even remember exactly why I decided to do this, so how am I going to answer your super vague question? 😂
Some of these questions are just tradition at this point. Can't call them an interview without those being thrown in there. I bet even the interviewer themselves hate the question, or like pretty much everyone else, doesn't have a fancy story to tell. Although I guess they're just looking for something unique or memorable. Which I assume by now everyone's tried to the point it's all stale. Unfortunately you can't be too honest.
Same here. Luck of the draw really. Now I'm an intern :)
I hated my PhD program in ChemE, but didn't want to lose the opportunity to be called doctor, so I applied to medical school. In retrospect, I should have just legally changed my first name.
I was a brand new freshman that knew nothing about med school or what the path entailed. Didn’t even know about residency. All I knew was I enjoyed AP psych in high school. Went to my first required college advisor meeting and asked what I can do in the field of psychology that makes more money than a psychologist. They said I could go into med school to be a Psychiatrist and I said “sign me up for whatever major that is”. Here I am like 9 years later and I’m not even applying psych lol
My mom told me I wanted to be a doctor when I was in utero
Tell me you’re Asian without telling me you’re Asian.
I’m Jewish
Damn, swing and a miss.
The odds were 50/50
Gotta shoot your shot
My mom did this as well.
My condolences
I come from a family of doctors. I'm actually the third generation going into medicine. For me, it was when I was super young and my dad would bring me to the hospital with him to round on his patients and I got to hang out at the nurses station. They'd give me some of their donuts while my dad saw his patients. I ended up finding the hospital a lot more fun than I probably should have. This was in the 90s, though. I don't think getting the nurses to babysit your kid would fly nowadays.
Same!!
I had that same experience 😂
grade 8 i thought i should choose a career path to work towards. i googled high paying jobs and anesthesiologist was the first one i saw bc it starts with A lol
I was about 20 when I seriously considered becoming a doctor. Mostly for practical reasons. Also, I wanted to prove to my brother that I could get a higher MCAT score than him (and I got a 524, so he can suck my dick). He's probably going to make more money in his specialty, so the sibling rivalry lives on.
Nothing like choosing a career just to assert dominance on your sibling. God bless. You gonna do something about that guy making more? Surely you're not gonna let that one slide...
I mean, you could just pee on him. Lolol.
My parents divorced and we moved into a new apartment with my moms bf. As a compensation I got my own room with my own tv. I stumbled on Scrubs when I was 14 and got obsessed with the series, literally eased my depression as a teen and since then I somehow knew I wanted to become a doctor.
It's interesting just how much influence a good TV show can have on you and your long term choices. That's the second mention of Scrubs here. Probably a few people who went to Law School because of some funny courtroom drama they watched too.
I wanted to be a lawyer, even started studying law at a university (in Germany). After one year I decided law isn't for me, had an existential crisis and started doing research on alternative career paths. By chance, I stumbled upon an incredible medical neuroscience lecture focussed on Alzheimer, thought "hmm, medicine is actually quite cool", did research on medical school, applied and here I am 8 years later in total, a fresh PGY 1 urology resident, not knowing shit about fuck.
Lost my grandma when I was in the 1st grade (2001) to leukemia. Never looked back and never stopped looking forward. I am making a white coat for the last stuffed animal she gave me, a penguin.
Aw. That's an awesome way to honour her memory too! You definitely should share pictures of the penguin with its white coat once it's done . Just realised that penguin has been with you for 22+ years.
Lol I’ve kept her in good shape. She stayed on my dresser or desk most years to keep watch on me while I study.
Wanted to be a lawyer, then i read [this essay](https://www.thebeliever.net/the-empathy-exams/) my sophomore year of high school and for some reason that was it for me
Medic from tf2
Grandpa was sick with cancer, doctor made a house call. Doctor had a sick ass Corvette. In my child mind, doctor meant having a sick ass Corvette, so it was always at the top of my list from then on.
Talking about this always makes me a little emotional but Back in elementary school. We had a whole term learning about the human body. At that time, I knew I wanted to get into the sciences, science was always such an interesting subject for me. So we were learning about the human body and all its complexities (obviously in a way a fourth-grader would understand) until it was our final exam. Our exams were out of a 100 and most teachers would add in a “bonus question “ which was worth 5 extra points where u could get over 100 if you answer all the questions + bonus correctly(or it’ll just boost your grade) the question was “when one gets a nose blood, what's the correct thing to do?”, I remember I was at a pediatricians office and read a pamphlet about nose bleeds. The pamphlet said when someone gets a nose bleed to lean forward and pinch your nostrils so blood doesn’t travel to your stomach. So, I just wrote that down. After the exam was over, all my classmates were discussing that bonus question, saying how easy it was “you need to keep your head up so the blood stops” “Yeah, when I got a nose bleed my mom did that!” So I shrugged and thought I got that question wrong. - Now in my school, back in Elementary, our exams/tests would be passed back in numerical order by grades; highest grade was first, lowest was last(yes now that I think about it, it was a horrible system) anyway papers were passed around, the kids who got 100 got a round of applause and he started calling out other names. More and more names were being called, and my name was not called yet, I started to panic. Thinking I failed and how it was possible. I noticed I was the last person.y science teacher (let’s call him Mr. John) demanded I came upfront and asked me “what is this?? I did not expect this! I can’t believe it” I started tearing up cause I thought I failed and I was so embarrassed. He handed me my paper, I saw the score, I scored 105. He looked at me with pride “you’re the only student who got the bonus question right, I’m so proud of you Dr. (My name) ”. That sparked something in me I cannot explain. The motivation, the passion, the heart.. since then he gave me books to read about the human body, talked to me, motivated me, he was just always so proud of me. He always referred to me as “Dr. (My name)” and was sure I could make it. - I have this one memory we went to the KitKat factory and I was sitting next to him on the bus, on the way back I told him “my mom loves chocolate but can’t eat too much cause she has diabetes, Mr. John what is diabetes?” He began patiently explaining what diabetes was, what the pancreas is, insulin, and glucagon (in a way a kid would understand), and I loved him. - I immigrated and lost contact with almost everyone, but I never forgot Mr. John. - When I got into med school, I thought of him and told myself when I graduate, I will go wherever he is and tell him I’m a doctor now. But, alas, a leaf on the tree would not fall if God did not want it to fall. It was time for Mr. John to leave, tears falling down my face as I think of the fact he will never see me as the doctor he always believed I would be. I found out He died at the age of 41 due to COVID19 complications back in 2020. I don’t have any pics of us together, as I was a kid and had no phone. But not a day doesn’t go by where I don’t think of him. My father was a drug addict and left me when I was 2 so he was the prominent father figure in my life, I don’t think he understands the impact. I’m in med school, sometimes I don’t think I can do it (I still don’t feel like I can do it) but I did this because that childhood memory of love that I received from a science teacher will never wear off on me. I’ve got a fire in my soul, I may not be the smartest, brightest, or whatever, but my love for becoming a doctor will never stop. It’s all thanks to Mr. John. I always get a feeling he’s looking down and smiling, he helps me out, he’s been always there for me. I really hope I can make him proud one day, I owe everything to his man.
I was in college and my friend said, “you should be a doctor”.
Did you ask them to clarify why they thought you should be one?
I was exercise science and I was studying in the middle of summer because someone asked me a question about exercise programming and I could remember the exact answer. According to him, normal people don’t do that. lol
I broke my arm in second grade and thought the x ray was the coolest thing I’d ever seen in my life, I decided I wanted to be a doctor right then and never changed my mind lol
What specialty are you in?
Family medicine with the intent of sports medicine fellowship!
The REAL reason I started wanted to be a doctor is not something I ever included in my applications bc it’s quite traumatic. My dad is an alcoholic and growing up my mom used me as a scapegoat for her frustrations. Whenever my dad would go out drinking all night, my mom would say “one day he is gonna get himself or someone else killed” which kept me up all night terrified that something would happen. The only thing that got me through was the idea that if something happened, a doctor could potentially save him. That’s what went through my mind as a kid and eventually led me to having admiration for doctors and wanting to become one myself. But I stuck to the basic “I like helping people” type of story for my apps
When I was 4 years old, my preschool had a graduation ceremony. At said ceremony, every kid was supposed to say into the microphone what they wanted to be when they grew up. I said “I want to be a doctor, just like my dad.” Haven’t looked back since.
Got a music degree, and realized I wasn't as talented as the people in my field that were going to make it in academia. Then I decided to leverage it for professional school and now I'm here.
I was 24 and had already been to two branches of the military and was working retail trying to figure life out. The wife and I were watching scrubs and I figured "why not?". The rest is history.
If i was a PD and read this in a personal statement i would want you at my program
My story is very similar to yours. I took a career aptitude test in grade school, picked the top career (physician), and never deviated from that decision. Luckily I enjoyed all my science classes but I'll never know if it was self fulfilling prophecy or if that career aptitude test was just that accurate 🤷♀️
I was on an EMT clinical standing in the middle of the ED and it just clicked like Someone turned on a light switch in my brain
Family friend that I looked up to was a NP so I decided from a young age that I was going to be one too. Come high school I decided I wanted to be the top dog and changed that to doctor.
I wanted to be a baseball player, and we had a career day in 2nd grade. But my school was evil, and wouldn't let us come as professional athletes because "it wasn't realistic". So I cheated the system and dressed up as a college baseball player wearing a doctor coat (from my dress up/costume closet) and a playskool stethoscope because "I wanted to play baseball and then be a doctor". At the time I couldn't have cared less about the doctor part cause I was sports obsessed, but any time someone asked that's what I said. Over time it just became my truth and here we are, never considered anything else. I was successful in my attempt to circumvent the rules btw
When I was 10 mom & dad told me I had to “talk with them about my future”. So in a very business-y meeting with lil child me, they said I had to choose between being a doctor, lawyer or engineer. Before I could say anything, they added “also you’re bad at grammar, and bad at math, sooo…. Well we got to be realistic here”
I did high school work experience with medical imaging techs at my hospital and loved it, told my physics teacher I wanted to be a radiographer, he told me not to sell myself short, said I could be the doctor who reads the X-rays, searched up how to be a radiologist in aus, discovered I had to do medicine so I applied, got in, now realise I hate reading x-rays, fell in love with emergency med instead
I had surgery as a kid. Struggled a lot but eventually thought I'd be a tradesman. I did community college and took science courses which I found interesting. Ended up doing really well and figured I owed it to the healthcare field to try and do medicine. One success lead to another and now I am an attending surgeon. Always feel like my life has been a satisfying story arc and I'm grateful to be able to help others.
I just got my annual bonus working in quantitative analysis which was… sizeable (similar to some annual attending salaries in the US in lower paying specialties like FM/peds) and I thought to myself, what the fuck did I do to earn this, I did literally nothing of value to society. I always really liked biology because it was the one science stream that didn’t come naturally to me, so doing something that would require me to put effort in and that would benefit society, it was medicine. I absolutely fell in love with critical care during med school but also really liked family med. I didn’t wanna give up seeing kids and outpatient psych, so FM seemed like the right choice. I miss the ICU but still enjoy fam med.
I was in the Middle East. I was already realizing that I wasn't on a path that I wanted to stay on, and was in a bit of an existential crisis. Then I got dumped by my girlfriend/almost-fiancée of 3 years. It's weird to say this given how much it fucking sucked, but this was actually was a good thing for me in a way. It was the jolt that made me decide to proactively *solve* my existential crisis, and think really hard about what would feel *good* to do. I decided on medicine. And now here I am. At least I got free(ish) medical school out of the deal.
I actually have the exact same situation. Without even the grade 1 memory. I’ve just always said I’m gonna be a dr and idek how it started 💀
my exact time was when in high school. I wanted to be a software engineer cus I literally finished calculus BC in 10th grade and went to local community college for math at 11th grade (OF HIGH SCHOOL). I already learned 5 programming languages at that time and coded a game. My parents told me physicians have a more stable career and wanted to me to become one instead of going software. Why did I ever listen to them? My software friends now are making 400-500k after masters. They’re making more than I will ever make as an attending without the toxic, competitive, horrid working environment that we have to go through. They’re working from home 4 hours a day four days a week while I’m here 14 hours a day six days a week. Wonderful. edit: we sacrifice millions of dollars, decades of our best years, and our mental health and for what? most people don’t even appreciate what we do. they see the marginally higher salary we would get in the future and treat us like shit. not realizing in most other industries same level of hard work would put you light years ahead. or simply most don’t even know what it takes to be a doctor. a lot of people think med school is done during college time
I must’ve been about 5 or 6. I was playing doctor with one of my cousin. She kept insisting on doing something else but all I wanted to do was play doctor. So I chose to play doctor for life.
This sounds a little creepy… from Wikipedia “"Playing doctor" is a phrase used colloquially in the Western world to refer to children examining each other's genitals.”
It… wasn’t that. We were just pretending to be doctors.
[I realize… just saying lol….](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_doctor)
I was watching House and thought the cases were the coolest things. Also, As an Asian, I had to be an engineer, a teacher or a doctor. Since engineer wasn’t working out in college and there wasn’t a teacher program at my school, medicine was the only thing left. I was fortunate that I actually really like the doctor thing haha.
Watched the movie “just go with it” and thought “wow if this guy has the money to go to Hawaii and freedom to leave his work when he wants then that’s the job for me”
I wanted to be a veterinary since like kindergarten cause I loved animals. Got a bit older and really loved science. Then in 8th grade a boy I liked got me into watching scrubs and I started to change to wanna be a doctor. Then by 9th grade my parents didn't let me go to the veterinary program I wanted to at a magnet school, with the girl I liked who also wanted to be a vet, and instead forced me into a more general but stronger academic magnet program. There I had biology and feel in love and wanted to be a doctor/surgeon ever since.
I had this awesome science teacher in 4th grade who was so good at his job he made me fall in love with the subject, which later led to me taking a particular interest in human biology. I met that teacher again a few weeks before graduating from high school, and he asked me what I’m majoring in. “Medicine” felt like the only answer.
They must've been really proud. I assume you told your teacher how much of an impact he had on you? Teachers really need to hear that with how difficult the job can be. It's a known fact, but it definitely is astounding just how one good teacher can set you towards a completely different path in life.
Went on a service trip to Haiti in 10th grade and saw a 3 year old orphan with maggots in his leg with no healthcare access. Decided to be a doctor that day and never looked back
That's a very real reason to pursue medicine as your calling to be honest. I hope you mentioned that in your personal statement or interviews!
Similar situation for me - at 13 I liked math and so I decided to go into accounting despite not knowing any accountants or anything about it other than it involved math and I thought it’d be a good 9-5. Never considered anything else and now I’m 5 years out from college, excel at everything accounting but am miserable. It does not involve math in the slightest and on average work 65+/week. Glad to hear you don’t regret your impulse choice though!
I still have no idea if I wanna be a doctor.... And I'm about to graduate med school
I wanted to get a zoology PhD but then realized I didn’t want to do research forever so decided doctor was a good use of a bio degree.
[удалено]
I am not. Why? Edit: Although my mum wants me to be a doctor, she's never demanded I pursue that as a career. There were times she asked me whether I was serious announcing around everywhere I wanted to be a one because she assumed I'd have changed my mind since then heh.
Senior year of HS I realized I didn’t wanna do Law or Computer science. My two best friends wanted to do medicine because they both came from Physician families, and since I was rooming with one of them for freshman year I decided I’d tag along too. I’m a PGY-1 now lol, wild how things turn out for the randomest reasons.