Dr. Max

 

One of my Zoology Professors told me the snakes are actually worms....i dont know if i believe him. 

Why do I want to be a doctor?

That is a huge questions. And as I am told it will be frequent in my interviews with potential medical schools. That is what this post is about. Something incredibly important to me. With all the schooling, the stress, the tests, the o-chem, and all the loans. ;D It is a long road, and this is post is a look into why. Why on earth am I doing this!?

            Back in the day, when the only thing that you worried about was getting all the Golden Bananas on Donkey Kong 64, I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up. (now I don’t know what on earth I was thinking…pun intended.) One day I went to Lagoon with the family. I was finally able to ride the cool big white Rollercoaster. I remember this being the first big rollercoaster I ever went on. My dad being the future planning dad he is told me that what my stomach felt like would be what it would be like to be on the space shuttle. Well after the ride I puked, and my dreams of being an astronaut were in my mind. Ruined.

            The downfall of my astronaut career led to a dark time in the life of young Max George. I wanted to be all sorts of things. Only to let them fall away with little thought or care. A scientist, video game designer, director, and crime scene investigator were only a few of the things that I wanted to be when I “grew up.” One test told me that I should be a clothes designer….still thinking that might be a good idea….

            A few of my posts have talked about how I am a planner. So it is normal for me to say that not knowing what I wanted to do with my life was very distressing. I knew I liked science, but math was not my favorite. I loved kids, but I did not like teaching. This would perplex me day in and day out. One day, the thought came into my head about medicine. Maybe I could be a doctor. A pediatrician. I would use science and work with kids. Best of both worlds!

 

Cute non-stress senior Max....

            I knew in that moment I think that being a pediatrician is what would make me happy in life. It just seemed so clear. I took some medical classes my senior year of high school and fell in love with the art of medicine. I could look at an anatomical diagram and have it memorized in a matter of minutes. Ask me to do that with a Robert Frost poem and it will take me 4 years to master. Medicine just came easy to me. All of the sudden, I knew, with out a doubt what I wanted to be when I grew up.

Why do I want to be a doctor?

All of this happened while I was pubescent and in high school. I took some medical classes in college before my mission and again, fell in love with the science. I left for Uruguay and continued this drive to see an MD after my name. I returned home and began school immediately in the fall as a pre-med student.

            Being a pre-med student is no cake walk. There are so many pre-req classes for the MCAT that I want to shoot myself on occasion. I feel like I will never get out of Weber State University. I see my friends around me graduating and moving on with there lives. And I am still dreading finals week every semester. The classes are difficult. Often I have 3 classes with 3 hour labs a week. Chemistry is a bitch. I have so much extra-curricular going on that I feel overloaded sometimes. Sometimes I wish I could just work at Great Harvest full time….

            And I will be honest. Sometimes I do want to give it all up. Throw the towel. Give up on medicine. There is nothing more degrading then getting a bad score on a test in my mind, and I have had my fair share. I look at the 7 years I still have to go, all the money, the moving, the challenges, and I want to say screw it. Why shouldn’t I go into movie editing!? That would be fun. 

I know Gandalf...I know.....

Why do I want to be a doctor!?!?

            Here is the reason. I want to make a difference. Now, I am not saying that all the other professions on this planet do not make a difference. That would be ignorant of me. But for me, to feel like I am making a difference I need to be a doctor. There is no other profession that I can think of that would fulfill me as much as a doctor would. I want to cause change. I want to look into the eyes of a sick child and make them feel better. I want to heal. I want to fix. I do not want to be another grain of sand on this planet. I want to be that seashell that makes someone’s day. And in my young adult brain the only way I can do that is by being a doctor. I want to figure out the unknown. I want to solve problems. I want to be there for people when they need me. There are a lot of perks too. The pay, the prestige, the allure of being a doctor. But at the heart of it all, I want to help this world. I do not want to fade into the background noise like a lot of my generation. I want to be a doctor.

            After writing all of this I feel like we maybe should start asking kids what will they be when they grow up instead of what they want to be. Obviously that would be impossible. It took me quite sometime to figure it out. And I am glad I did. I am passionate about medicine and this is a small glimpse as to why. Kylies little cousins have recently started calling me Dr. Max, and now it is a thing. I even have a clock with it on it! (Thank you Brian.) Dr. Max. It has a nice ring to it. A lot is going to happen in my life. Some of it I won’t be able to control. One thing though that I can control is that I will be a doctor. Give me all the hell that is school. I can take it. Give me all the student loans. It’s worth it. Give me the stress. What is another ulcer? Dr. Max is only a few years away.

Scary, stressed, senior in college Max... 

p.s. Sorry is this sounded arrogant. Not my intention. It is however, my passion, and I feel like I can be somewhat of a big head about it ;)

p.p.s What do you want to be when you grow up? :D (3000 blog points)