It takes incredible strength of character, high self discipline, and focus to even make it through medical school!
Getting accepted into medical school ALONE is an incredible accomplishment
The Amazing Pride Behind Being a Medical Student
Everybody has heard about the dinner you're invited to by your fiancé's family where the father grills you about what you do, who you are and what you plan to be. All before even attempting to ask what your intensions were with his daughter.
We all have seen the expression and instantaneous relief and happiness in the father's body language as soon as he hears his daughter is dating someone studying to be a doctor, or better yet IN medical school.
What you may not realize is that this is not just something that many fathers want for their daughters- to marry someone who is successful and career oriented- but many of the fathers whom are or were doctors themselves see an immense flow of respect for the guy whom is studying to enter this field. You may think right away that this is because of a rapport issue, or that their heart was in this so they love that this guy will be in it too.
Although this may be a very miniscule part of it, it is not the reason he will instantly fall in love with his daughter's choice of a bread winner. No what he has for this guy is not admiration for his choice to become a doctor because he will make a lot of money; it's much deeper and personal than that- he has RESPECT for him. (And I'll explain that below)
Doctors Change Lives Dramatically- Starting with their own
The Reality of Why Medical Students Get So Much Respect...
The truth however is much deeper than and not as obvious as one would think if they haven't tried to get into medical school right out of high school. Sure you make a great deal of money and have a steady career ahead of you as a Doctor but getting there is three quarters of the battle!
Click to enlarge chart
You have to consider:
The amount of money it will cost you (which is VERY high)
The qualifications to get into medical school (you pretty much have to start thinking about this before you enter high school, and thus many parents start very early preparing their children whom want to become doctors someday not to be on the safe side, but because you HAVE to, or the disheartening real world facts will haunt you when it's too late to do something about it (more on this later)!
This is not a field of study you simply decide on a whim to enter into, and if you've gotten past all the qualifications and have entered into medical school you will realize that if you didn't want this more than air, you'd of never gotten this far!
The Very Term "Doctor" demands respect
Getting into Medical school is only the first step into a very long Journey of Education
The medical student knows better than anyone else, that you don't even get to the first step of even getting the opportunity to study to become a doctor unless you qualify to fit certain very rigid and very stringent credentials.
Often your grades have to be in the top 10% to even be considered! Competition is fierce and most medical schools are extremely strict in whom they let in. Of over 50,000 people last year that signed up for medical school only 120 were accepted!
The proud father, whom just wants the best for his daughter, realizes that if you are IN medical school then you already have a pedigree of success behind you and have a highly responsible and motivated disposition or you wouldn't have gotten that far.
Being in medical school to any father is a sign of a highly successful minded, disciplined, and focused individual whom will VERY likely give their daughter a good life and make all her dreams come true.
This applies to both men and women equally, I just used this example to make my point from a situation most people could relate to.. These days both men and women get grilled by the parents of their date/fiancé about their futures since it takes often two working parents to survive or thrive in this economy.
On another note those whom are in medical school are often humbled about it with the parents because the intense drive and dedication that it takes to make it to medical school and on to the entourage of post graduate programs before you even qualify to apply to become a doctor, gives someone a sense of accomplishment and discipline that doesn't require validation from others to know how accomplished or cool they are.
In fact if you need validation for your hard work you will not make it to doctor because most people don't realize how truly hard it is or are jealous of you anyway, but the important point is that this kind of training takes an incredibly optomistic disposition that allows you to perservere during incredibly taxing times- for most people a social life is out of the question if your to make it through the difficult classes and memory work.
If they are excited about the father/mother liking them, their joy at finding out that you are in medical school will not be a sense of ego but more so a relief that your girlfriend's/boyfriend's parents accept you into the family! The father's pride in your accomplishments is just a bonus.
That said their is a glamourous side to medical school, post graduate school and becoming a Doctor.
The irony is that by the time you become a doctor the money isn't even the biggest part of your happiness or growth! The end result- The prize- is far more personal and rewarding than money.
The Rewards of becoming a doctor are more than you can possibly imagine..
All that said, I don't want you to think I'm trying to scare you out of wanting to be a doctor, in fact I think it is the most exciting, and intensely rewarding endeavor you could possibly take on.
The few that make it all the way experience something that everyone on earth strives for their whole life and many even at the end of their life don't accomplish, have, or get to see, enjoy or look back at.
(what is it?! ... Patience.. The answers are coming neo...)
I've always believed that in life the most difficult things bring the biggest rewards. In the bible even, it is said "give up all your worldly possessions and I will give you 100 fold that in heaven" This is a metaphor to me that means their are many more riches in things not tangible such as Love, Growth, Strength of Character, and Accomplishment to name only a few. Everything else is just a "resource" to attain these things.
The very things that we DO take with us are the most valuable. Things that have a permanent impact on our soul- Growth and awareness. But that's not the something I'm talking about. The second half of this article will talk about that.
The bad news but also the good news
(when your a doctor you will become enlightened and understand why its also the good news)
I will not josh you, fill you with false hope, or lie to you... With the medical profession you will jump through some extraordinary hoops, you will work harder than even you thought was possible, you will surpass amazing hurdles, suffer the most incredible pains and frustrations you've ever had to endure... But... (I know.. I should get right on that medical school commercial because I'm really getting you excited now right? Trust me though... These are ALL good things, even if you can't see it yet)
When it's all said and done you will have something more valuable than money, more rewarding than having everything you think you want now, and more amazing than even you can possible comprehend before hand. Trumped only by yet almost as potent as, the power of true and untainted Pure Love Extract.
Their is a very real, and very good reason behind a doctor's sense of pride.
The first steps of the Journey start early in life..
Their is a saying that truly nails what I'm about to tell you:
"If you fail to prepare then you prepare to fail"
Becoming a doctor is much more than learning a profession. It is much more work than even the 100k a year is worth, and yet their is a reward so spectacular and valuable that no doctor would give it up for all the tea in china.
The Journey to becoming a doctor starts in high school. One must prepare for the interview to get into medical school far before he or she is ready to start school.
Burning Desire
For many doctors they had a burning desire to become one far before high school and in many cases, such as in a family where the parents or parent or older members of the family (whom were most likely doctors themselves) impress upon the children the concept of being a doctor, these doctors were carefully guided to make sure everything from school work to joining the best clubs in school, was drafted with "surgical Precision" (I couldn't resist a good pun!).
The schools look at a great deal more than your desire to become a doctor, they look at many things that have often been used to show your "track record" for ambition, tenacity, perseverance, courage, consistent growth, triumph through difficult challenges and so forth.
This is done often through your attended clubs, one example is running for and becoming class president, juggling several clubs/after school activities at once in difficult areas of study, taking all college prep courses and getting high marks, perfect attendance... And the list just keeps going...
If you haven't prepared your not "Infected" with Failure just yet
Preparing for the interview is an awareness that you are going to be competing with a great deal of "prepped" students whose records are impeccable, and who have taken incredible steps to assure their place is secured.
If you simply one day decide you want to become a doctor and have mediocre grades, no clubs, nothing in your record that impresses the board, then you have a very slim to none chance of getting into a good school, which in many cases is imperative to getting into a good hospital later! This is because with the competition being so intense these schools can and will grab the "pick of the litter" so to speak.
Preview of a great resource
This site is a great awareness resource to get you started on the path
Not to worry though...
Your not blackballed yet..
This is not to discourage you however if this is you, because their are plenty of schools you can get into, including some abroad. I won't go into this here, however, you can read more about this and a great deal more about the specifics of how to get into and navigate medical school by clicking that link.
You won't be dissappointed as that site is incredibly detailed, easy to understand, and rich with wisdom. Where this hub takes on the more emotional side of becoming a doctor that site takes on the actual "How to become a doctor" aspect with lucid, to the point but highly informative pages on everything from how to get into schools with a 2.0 GPA to get into MEDICAL SCHOOL IN THE CARIBBEAN!
Rewards of Becoming a Doctor
Their are a great deal of reasons one would want to become a doctor, but until you actually make it you don't realize the most rewarding reason of all. I'm not talking about simple pride either.
With all the grueling studying you go through, the frustration you endure and all the deadlines you somehow make. With all the information you absorb like a sponge eventually. These things are not just you trying to graduate, they become stimulations to become more than you ever were.
Your brain is used so much that probably for the first time in your life your purposefully growing it, strength training it using mental acuity, thinking, memorizing etc..
Your thought processes are evolving substantially, your ability to memorize and remember things increases as well. When you graduate medical school you are a whole new person, and don't even realize at first that you didn't just graduate medical school, you've just completed an intense biological boot camp that has made you smarter, a more powerful student, with more capacity than you ever had.
Everything you went through especially the hard times, the frustrating study sessions and so on.. Have turned you into a machine! I have a sneaking suspicion that part of why medical school is so hard is because it prepares you not only mentally to become a doctor but physically to sustain the ability to integrate intense amounts of data you will need to property and safely do your job!
Am I the only one who notices the correlation between long hours studying and memorizing and the long hours doctors work every day? It's like your forced to study all that outside your comfort zone boundries time, because you have to extend what you concider a "normal" work day from 8 hours to 3 days! (you think I'm kidding huh)...
Doctors have years and thousands of books worth of information running through them at all times. By the time you become a doctor your brain becomes this amazing Google search engine and you can instantly access any information in your knowledgebase, you can fire your brains network of synapses with razor sharp clarity and surgical precision!
Nothing, not one iota of the training is wasted... It is all efficiently and effectively for something, to build something, to grow you in some way and to turn you into a doctor.
A doctor is not simply someone with skills; a doctor is someone who has super human abilities relative to the average Joe. Their is no coincidence between the prestige of putting the word "doctor" before your name and the actual reason that sounds so powerful. Being a doctor is being powerful!
A doctor is someone who is truly alive, aware, and intoxicated by life's very essence. They cannot afford to take anything for granted and this is a very powerful thing in life!
They not only are fully using their body in many ways, but they know so much about it they have this uncanny ability to understand life to a degree (no pun intended) that gives them strengths they didn't have before!
Becoming a doctor is one of the most amazing professions their is, and when you consider that you are in charge of preserving life, bringing life into this world, saving lives, and diagnosing problems in the lives of many people quickly and effectively-
-you really have to ask yourself not "am I willing to go through all this to become something so much more, so much more incredible and enlightened than most people ever get to feel" but rather
"Am I crazy enough to pass up this chance to do something pretty amazing, become someone pretty amazing, and truly feel alive in every aspect?"
If you are contemplating weather or not you want to become a doctor, then you are ready to get started. You have already made the decision... Now it's time to understand it.
The worst that can happen here is you will grow... Even if you fail medical school, the experience will push you into a higher place.
Thank you for reading my article. I wish you luck. A few paragraphs up their is a link to one of my favorite starting point resource sites, you should definitely give it a look, it could change your life!
▓▓▓▓▓▒▒░░ The Few The Proud The Doctorines :)
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