<p>My father wants me to be a doctor. And I honestly don't know if I want to be a doctor.
I mean since I was little I wanted to be a doctor heck I told that to everyone. But now that my father keeps putting the typicla asian rant of " Be a doctor", I get tired and unsure. I have a very curious mind and I love knowing things. I love little children ( Pediatrics) Every time I have a health issue ( Like Flu, etc) I look up online and find out about it. I like reading about diseases or health conditions and how to cure them. I like to find the answer ( Most of the time I skip the problem and straight to the answer sheet). I like singing too on the other hand. I know my father wants me to have a better future than him but I honestly feel afraid of the responsibilities that come from being a doctor. I have a very pessimistic mind.</p>
<p>The very best way to discover if a career of a physician is something you’d like and be good at is to shadow some physicians and actually see what they do and what their work-life is like.</p>
<p>How does one shadow? You contact doctors you know (start with your own primary care provider) and ask if you can. If they say no, ask if they can suggest the names of other doctors who might allow you to shadow them. Keep asking and eventually you will find someone to say yes.</p>
<p>Check with your local hospitals. Some may offer career exploratory sessions for high school students.</p>
<p>Another way to gain exposure to what a doctor’s life is like is to volunteer at healthcare sites. (Hospitals, but also nursing homes, rehabiliation hospitals and group homes.)</p>
<p>Becoming a doctor is long and arduous road, requiring many years of schooling, plenty of hard work and sacrifices, and probably taking on a great deal of debt. It’s not a decision to be made lightly.</p>
<p>And remember there are hundred of jobs that will provide you with a comfortable living–most of which neither you nor your dad have even heard of right now. 99.99% of them don’t require you going to medical school.</p>
<p>And if you like health care but aren’t sure you want to have all the responsibilities of a doctor, perhaps a physician’s assistant would be a good path.</p>
<p>Also, don’t forget that some people with M.D. degrees pursue careers in research rather than actually practicing medicine. You might want to spend some time in a research setting – perhaps in a summer job or internship – to get an idea of what that career path might be like.</p>
<p>rion99, will you just become a doctor? It’s not like your parents are asking a lot after all their sacrifice and hardship to dote on you and see to your needs from when you were just a very small child.</p>
<p>I know I will not be expecting my kids to become someone they don’t want to because I want them to take care of me and be in misery. I am still trying to find what my interest is. And my father was never there for me so why should I bother listening to him? Like everyone says YOLO</p>
<p>I agree with the person above who said to job shadow a physician. I am a pre-med and it was only after very long and carefully thought-out planning that I figured out my intended profession. Even so, I’m majoring in engineering to provide a viable alternative. Keep in mind that medical schools are highly selective and can tell whether or not you want to be there.
Explore different career opportunities too. Shadow professionals in other professions that interest you. Are you good and enjoy math and science? If you don’t, med school isn’t for you. Perhaps if you are interested, then chemical and biological engineering may provide more of a balanced lifestyle without nearly as much schooling.</p>
<p>Being a doctor is not automatically the easiest path to financial success (which is what I get from your post regarding family input) you have other options and should look at what you will enjoy and excel at. Why not job shadow doctor’s and engineers and perhaps someone working in reasearch, see what feels like home to you.</p>
<p>Nothing is worse than a doctor who doesn’t enjoy his work…just ask his patients! When you are taking care of people, you have to want to do that; especially sick people who are afraid and counting on you to help them. If you can see yourself happy in the profession then go for it. If not, it’s better to tell your father to go to medical school himself and do whatever YOU want to do.</p>
<p>You could even get an RN or RRT degree on your path to becoming a potential MD. The advantage in that is that you could earn good money with either of these degrees while getting a lot of the prep for med school. If you decide you don’t want to go into medicine, you still have these degrees to fall back on, which could help you learn a very good living.</p>
<p>To make it through medical school, internship, residency and perhaps a fellowship you must have passion about medicine/healthcare. It is a tremendous commitment of your time, your student life and your professional life. </p>
<p>If you enjoy healthcare, there are numerous other opportunities to work in the field.</p>
<p>^ I like that general idea and agree it is a long hard road, but I have a few friends that seemed to have gotten by with sheer intelligence and hard work. They were drawn to the status, income, and stability, not intrinsic fascination or desire to do something great. The choice of medicine and then even specialty had more to do with extrinsic, rather than intrinsic factors. Some are happy, and some are quite miserable.</p>
<p>How do your parents force you? Let me know the technique, I might try on my kid.</p>
<p>^^Signed him/her up for swimming lessons at the age of four (or other classes).</p>
<p>People who think it’s either prestigious or secure to be a doctor are out of touch with reality.</p>
<p>^Despite all the pessimism that people seem to have these days about the motivation of physicians (patients seem to think that all doctors are money-grubbers), physicians are still quite respected by laypeople</p>
<p>This parental hyperfocus is cultural, as rion said in his first post.</p>
<p>Rion, are you still in high school?</p>
<p>College can be about exploring your interests, at least until you declare a major, usually at the end of sophomore year.</p>
<p>You can major in anything and still go to medical school (taking prerequisites between college and med school). You mentioned singing. Music majors do better with med school admission than any other group, I have read.</p>
<p>Your father may need to be educated about how college and med school admissions work. And about the contemporary work world.</p>
<p>Once you graduate from college, you can also do physician’s assistant training, which is an exciting and growing field (someone else mentioned this).</p>
<p>But it does not sound like you have a natural interest in medicine or caring for people.
If you have no passion for medicine, don’t do it! Parents like professions like medicine, law and business, because they think they promise security and prestige. The work world options are complicated and messy, and may require some experimenting. This is scary for some parents, but the outcome from facing those uncertainties can be much better than the outcome from the false security of premature planning.</p>
<p>Tell your father that you will decide on a profession after exploring your interests at college. The options may or may not include medicine. Ask him if he would like to go to a counselor with you, if necessary, and find one who is sensitive to cultural differences.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>I absolutely understand your prob, I’m Asian myself. </p>
<p>Sent from my iPhone using CC</p>
<p>Why are you bothering to argue with your father about this now? It doesn’t impact what college you choose (most reputable schools provide good basic science prep for pre-meds) and you don’t know what you’d rather do anyway. Go to college and figure it all out later - there is no pre-med major at any college and 40% of pre-meds don’t choose a science or tech major, so you can study whatever you want. At worst, you’ll take a few basic science classes while you’re thinking it over. You can do some research, do some volunteering in a medical environment, and then have a rational discussion with your father about what you really want to do with your life.</p>
<p>No reason to rattle the parental cage right now if he’s not willing to listen. Just smile and nod.</p>
<p>My cousin is a doc who chose to be a radiologist. She reads x-rays online from her home office and never sees actual patients! </p>
<p>Just saying there are many ways to be a doctor. Some people like little children, some love fixing hearts, and some love the more theoretical aspect of say, tracking down viruses in a lab. Some people go into opthamology because there is no blood and hardly ever an emergency, while some people go into surgery because they thrive on blood and emergencies. In a manner of speaking…</p>
<p>And agree that med school, if it is in the cards, is a LONG way away from now.</p>