Why more and more medical students are choosing lifestyle specialties

I'm not going to lie. I used to be in the crowd calling medical students who chose specialties such as dermatology, radiology, Ophthamology, etc, lazy, and maybe even sell-outs depending on the day. But as I think harder about the issue of career choice, how could I or anyone call anyone who chose to go to medical school lazy?

I don't think the increase in popularity of lifestyle specialties is due to the inherent laziness of the individual, but because the opportunity costs of going into medicine are rising every decade. While the study of medicine may not have become harder, I do believe social and economic changes have made it a harder career choice to stick to. In earlier decades when the physician was highly respected and highly paid, and there wasn't much competition amongst other professions for such stature, the sacrifice of becoming a physician probably seemed a lot more worth it.

Now, students have an abundance of career choices upon graduation, careers that could equally lead to high societal stature and high salary. Not only that, these alternative career choices may offer shorter, less turbulent roads to the same destination. So to choose to take the harder course, one is already making a big sacrifice - which, I should mention started since high school. So after 10 years of making hard choices and enduring emotional, physical and intellectual pain to achieve a medical degree, how much more sacrifice of your life can you really make?

I guess the answer to that questions depends on what motivated you to enter medicine in the first place - more altruistic or more selfish; and if you entered for more altruistic reasons (I don't think any decision is 100% altruistic), then have your reasons stuck with you, or has the process morphed them along the way? Afterall, we're all (even doctors), only human.

I'm not really jet lagged

I've been in the UK for almost two weeks now and have this bad habit of going to sleep at about 5 AM. At first I thought it was because my brain was still calibrated to the Pacific Time Zone. But, I've come to terms with the truth of the matter. I'm tired at night, but can't go to sleep because I'd rather be reading, watching television, or meeting new people. I spent the last two years studying practically nothing but medicine. Now that I have license to explore interests outside of the human body and what happens when it is diseased, I have been spending my time devouring anything and everything in my sight that is not medical in nature. It feels good!

Re-Discovering My Purpose

For the past couple of month's I have felt lost and without purpose. This is quite strange since purpose is what got me to medical school, and purpose is what I had always believed would get me through this arduous journey! But alas, it seems that as soon as my greater dreams began coming true, the harder it was for me to remember why I had dreamt them in the first place.

As a kid I wanted to grow up and be a famous scientist who would help society in some big way. After my freshman chemistry class shook that delusion loose, I decided that in medicine I would find my passion and would still be able to improve society as a whole by helping the disadvantaged; both in fulfilling their need for healthcare and by advocating for greater social good.

I guess I can call it youthful idealism that has been replaced by the realities of the adult world. But it's not just that. There are plenty of kids my age so full of passion that they're moving and shaking local communities and bringing greater good about in both small and large ways. The idealism of their formative years hadn't yet whithered away, so why had mine?

Laying in bed tonight, I realized what my problem was. I am a "judger" and have always been. Something is good, bad, or not worth my qualitative assessment, i.e. it gets ignored. Living in America today, its easy to make a lot of negative judgments - e.g. Yes we have abundance in this country but why must people take so much advantage of it that they become obese? Why must people be so selfish as to only worry about what's in it for them? Why must people have such low self-esteem that they engage in such self-destructive behaviors? Why do so many lie, cheat, and steal their way to the finish line? Why are future leaders so passive-aggressive? And why the hell do people at a prestigious university use "like" all the damn time?!

It's just too easy to get frustrated with people, culture, and society as a whole these days and just damn it all to hell.

But as I thought about my traits as a "judger" I wondered, wouldn't my life be that much easier if I just stopped passing judgment on people? What if instead I lived by two rules - never intentionally hurt anyone and always try to make other people feel good/better about themselves. These are two principles my mother has always harped on, and though I believed in them conceptually, I now realize its time for me to put them into ACTION.

My academic advisor gave me a packet of information that he compiled to help his students focus and "be better people." As I read through it, one quote stuck out to me:

"Please, my friends, be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." -- Plato

The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was in fact true, it seems to be a fundamental state of being human. While there are always the exceptions, most of us are battling with something. If its not feelings of inadequacy, its fear of failure. If its not a broken heart, its a broken dream. Family members fall sick, companies cut jobs. On top of it all, the competition gets fiercer every day and many of us are trying to keep our heads above water. Indeed, all of us are fighting in some way.

Having said that, how many times has someone made your load easier to bear? The question I asked myself was how helpful is it for me to grimace at people I can't stand or who I'm not interested in getting to know? How helpful is it for me to judge another as weaker and treat them callously? There are plenty of people who are always trying to bring people down, but few who are always trying to pull people up.

I've had great examples from friends who are good at putting a smile on another's face. And now, instead of seeing the niceties of others as just a superfluous pattern of behavior that means nothing, I now understand it's deeper impact.

Though I've gone in quite a circuitous route, I am glad to have re-discovered my purpose - never put down, always lift up. In living by these principles alone, my judgments won't matter. The fact is I have no idea what another person might be going through and I definitely don't want to add to the frustration, anger, pain, and emptiness so many people feel in this country.

I'm pretty sure I'll be able to keep up my new approach to life. This time, its not just about "being nice" so I can get something. It's about giving someone else a little happiness they can hold on to.

Random Motivators

I have an exam coming up soon, and for the longest time I was unable to motivate myself to study for it with the intensity needed; until I went on facebook.

I started clicking through friends' profiles and then I came across a picture of a gorgeous girl who was a friend of a friend. I clicked on her profile and lo and behold she was a model/pageant winner/Fortune 500 consultant. She has a really cute boyfriend to boot and lots of friends.

I thought WOWZA! I don't got looks like that nor can I afford the lifestyle she can.

Thankfully, instead of feeling envious, I had a more mature epiphany: my looks ain't gonna get me THAT far, so I better make sure I'm damn good at whatever it is I do.

Then like that, all my motivation to study came back.

Shallow? Maybe. But it worked!

The good thing about being single is,,,

you get to refine your dating strategy by observing how other people mess up!

Case in point: There is this guy that used to come over a lot in the beginning of the year. He's a first year med student and him and my roommate (also a first year med student) would hang out a lot. I couldn't tell if they were dating or not.. he's a bit robotic. But the other day my other roommate told me that they're bf/gf not quite, maybe. Problem here? The roommate makes it way too easy for him. He comes, hangs out, they do god knows what, they cook together, chat etc. Easy. He can stay in limbo for however long he wants because either way, he'll get the same benefits. Seems like a bad strategy to me if you want someone as your bf.

Besides that, I have begun to reconcile a lot of conflicting information in my head. For the most part, I think many of the tactics I described were a bit on the manipulative bitch side. But men love sweet women, so how can you win the best guys when you're a manipulative bitch? Well actually that answer is simple, but point being - if being mean isn't your thing, how do you stay ahead in the courtship game when you know many men love challenges?

It dawned on me. You don't have to be mean AND manipulative. You can be sweet as a Georgia peach (are they really that sweet? I've never had one) and manipulative. I don't really like using manipulative in this case because it sounds as if you have an ulterior motive going where you get all the benefits and the guy gets none. Really, what the aim of seduction really is is to create fun and excitement for both parties.

The tactic? Be as nice and as charming as you can be when in his presence, but don't give in easily. It's that simple! LOL! I can't believe it took me what, 24 years to realize this!

I'm usually sarcastic, aloof, pretty much I usually give off the vibe that I can't be bothered. And if I am in the mood to flirt, I'll sting you a time or two - blame it on my sun sign.

While this weeds out the weak it also makes me feel bad that I make other people feel bad.. even if its unintentional. If that makes sense...

But I'm on this "value added" kick. What value do I add to a situation? To a person? Maybe I'll expand on this concept at another time... but for now I'll test my hypothesis and report the results as they come in. (Don't hold your breath. Med school isn't the most social venture on earth..)

I'm going to be a nicer person, for real for real this time

I've told people that I am attempting to turn a new leaf and be a "nicer" person; that is, less judgmental, more approachable, more "smiley," more giving, etc.

But I haven't been doing a good job of it.

Today I remembered something my mom told me a while back. She told me that as humans we all depend on each other. We're not lions or tigers and we don't have huge muscles or teeth to fend off attacks and obtain our own food. We depend on the kindness of others to get through our day, to eat, to feel important.. pretty much, to survive. So she asked, what is the point of being human if you can't help another person? What is your purpose in life if you can't serve as the shoulder to cry on, the person with a wealth of advice, the person who just smiles from time to time. You don't have to be a counselor or doctor to provide people with the things they need. You just need to be a nice person with a good heart.

It's easy for me to forget all of this when I'm not getting my way in life or I'm just tired in general. But really, what purpose am I living for if no one can depend on me? Also as important, how do I expect to receive goodness from the universe when I'm not putting it out there on a regular basis?

So with that, I am going to be a nicer person, for real, for real this time. I promise

Why specialization is key in medicine

I can no longer count how many times I've felt like a complete idiot for not knowing something during the course of this last year and a half in medical school. I got so conscious about my lack of knowledge that I started to observe my classmates - did they really know that much more than me?

Some of them most certainly do. I'm not going to lie. But a lot of them knew just as much or less than I did about certain things at a given moment. Phew! I'm not the class dunce!

But what I realized from all this neurotic behavior.. well sorta neurotic... is that we can't all know it all! There is just too much information!

I've had professors who say things like, "well we're not going to ask you to memorize this like they did in the old days. The only reason they memorized it back then is because that is all we knew about the body."

Now we know so much more! Its an information overload! Everywhere - not just Medicine.

I've heard about the con's of specialization - staying in your own realm of expertise may make someone myopic and seem less like a "real" doctor to some, but let me tell yah, its necessary!

With all the new things we're learning about disease, if something's up with my kidney I'd feel MUCH better going to a kidney specialist. I want someone who knows everything there is to know about the kidney, someone who loves the kidney so much they chose it as a career path, someone who has a picture of a kidney on their wall! Because an internal medicine doc has to know waaayy too much about the entire body to tell me everything there is to know about the kidney.

That's just the way it is. And thats fine by me!


I plan on going into neurology, with an emphasis on people who have numbness in their pinkie. I'll be the best pinkie specialist ever! (I kid of course.)