WHY DO YOU WANT TO STUDY MEDICINE?

Along this journey that I'm going to share with you, I want to try and inspire as many of you as possible to achieve great things. I want to get more people excited about medicine just as much as I am. A lot of people think that I chose this career path because of various stereotypical reasons. 

"Are you sure this is what YOU want to do or is it something your parents are enforcing upon you?"

"It's funny how most Indians go down the medical or engineering path, I didn't take you for someone that would conform to that tradition."

It would be a lie if I said that I knew exactly why I wanted to do medicine when I first decided to go through with the treacherous process of applying. Even when my cousin was helping me with a mock interview, she asked me the most difficult question that all prospective students are bound to come across at some point in their life:

WHY DO YOU WANT TO STUDY MEDICINE?

Erm..err.. I was lost for words. I had no idea how to answer that question. In general, this question is answered quite poorly during interviews.

• I like science and I like people - quite simply the most generic answer and in my opinion isn't a good enough reason to do medicine.
• There wasn't an eye-opening experience in a hospital which influenced me to pursue this career
• I want to help people - why not do nursing or charity work?
• I haven't always wanted to do medicine - this field sparked my interest instantaneously and out of the blue - so what made you pick this field?

I don't know. A gut feeling maybe? I think the answer to this golden question only came to life as I advanced through my first year at university. It's hard for me to explain into words how I felt as I worked through the normal anatomy and physiology of each and every system of the human body. At a cellular level, the processes that enable us to carry on with our periodic habits and routine blew my mind. What's astonishing about the medical pathway that a medical student undertakes is quite brilliant. Essentially, you start off by learning how your body works, this makes the literature you read very personal and makes you appreciate the great mechanisms of one's physical form. Using this knowledge, you can then begin to decipher why something has gone wrong with an individual. As a patient comes to you with multiple symptoms, you piece together fragmented bits of information and build up the jigsaw puzzle and bring them out of a vulnerable position. I guess this among many other factors is what makes me happy about my chosen path in life. I'm sure my reasons will change often but I hope that my passion is fired up more and more each year

Previously on my blog, I've mentioned my cousin who studies medicine at King's College. Recently, she's assisted in setting up a course which helps you with medical/dentistry interviews. They've launched a new site - MedInterview. I definitely recommend it as I personally know two people that are among the tutors. They do have a high success rate and even though the amount you have to spend in order to take part in the course seems like a lot, it's totally worth it!