Donna's Topic

Why Jenn wants to be a doctor...

Hmm, good question. Now to come up with an interesting way to answer... basically, in a nutshell I fell into it. Which is not an interesting answer, and I wish I could say it was my lifelong dream. But it isn't. My lifelong dream involves living in Southern Spain perhaps, painting in a sundrenched stone walled studio with a hammock off the side for much lazing and not much working. Maybe wandering down to the vineyards occasionally to check the sugar content of my grapes and planning my next sojourn through Provence and getting round and ruddy off wine and cheese. Or that's the dream du jour.

Through primary school and highschool I had very flighty dreams. Mathematician, physicist, astronomer, archaeologist, research scientist, interpreter, author. They all had favour with me for a decent period of time, and I still secretly want to be all of the above. So come the end of highschool when we had to put in preferences for uni, we all had to trudge up to the Careers Counsellor and tell him what we were hoping to do, and whether our OPs would match up. And if we were still having difficulty deciding - fill in this questionnaire and it will supposedly spit out your dream career.

And in my interview with the careers counsellor, he looked at my OP prediction (1-3) and said "well getting in is not going to be a problem... what do you want to do?". And my response? "I have no [freaking] idea". I had one course that I was going to apply for, and that was Arts/Science dual degree at uni, precisely because I had no other direction. Arts/Science would allow me to do a bit of everything. The test thing that would supposedly answer all my floundering questions was useless - about the only thing it didn't recommend as a career was hospitality. Though I still scored OK there. The career dude was very unhappy with me applying for only one course - you're allowed to put up to 6 preferences, but being as the required OP for my course was an 8 and that I could have failed all of my end of year exams and scored at least a 5, I wasn't understanding his anxiety on that front.

So I turned up at uni, with no idea what I was going to do, clasping a course guide book and a highlighter and sat down in the great court highlighting stuff that looked interesting. My first semester included French, Spanish, Chemistry and Biology subjects. I absolutely adored the French, enjoyed the Spanish and sort of winged the Science stuff. In later semesters I also studied History, Archaeology, Human Biology and Physiology, Physics, Pure and Linear Maths and enrolled briefly in both German and Russian (dropped because the timetables didn't allow me to sleep until noon). I have maintained for a very long time that my Arts degree kept me sane. It was what a uni degree should be - challenging and philosophical and it taught me to think laterally and openly. Unfortunately though, the great cliche of Arts students is somewhat relevant in that finding a job with my Arts degree would have been quite difficult.

So I went on a career search. This was no doubt influenced by the fact that during my second year, my grandmother (who I was very close to) became very ill and subsequently died from a relatively rare form of cancer, which I spent a lot of nights researching into the wee hours. I had the grades, intellect and personality to study medicine, and I liked the multifaceted nature of the profession. I also, and I can't lie, liked the guaranteed job and income at the end. So I applied, sat the exam and interview and did well and started my degree. And it's only while I've been here and been doing this course that I have really discovered my passion for it.

This is an amazing vocation, and I cannot wait to be out there actually practising. I love the interaction with others, I love the opportunity to heal not only patients, but relatives, friends and families as well. I love that I can get such intense personal satisfaction from doing good things. I also love that I never ever stop learning. It is impossible to know all that there is to know in medicine, aside from anything else it is an ever expanding field. It comes with great frustrations and tragedy, as will any job involving actual human beings - but the enjoyment I get out of it is second to none. Being in birth suite in the last few months has been incredible - to be a part of something so life changing in others lives. I am very lucky to have chosen a job that allows me that.

So hope that answers your question Donna! Hopefully I didn't bang on too much *blush*