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Embarking on a journey into the field of medicine is already an arduous endeavour in and of itself. However, it seems that the challenges don’t end there. Once you’ve managed to secure your place in the medical field, you find yourself confronted with yet another daunting expedition – medical school. Foundies was difficult enough, then BGDA hit us even harder, followed by HM and other bollocks before we have a chance to breathe. Sometimes, life in medicine feels like an enduring battle with no respite.
Then I hear you say: man I wish someone could show me five motivations for me to continue studying medicine, things are really getting out of hand here.
I got you, my friend.
Número Uno: The Latin words
I truly believe it is an inside joke in the medical field to create as many bars as possible with jargons: anyone would agree that ‘ligamentum teres hepatis’ flows off the tongue much better than ‘round liver ligament’. And if you think about it, most words can easily pass off as Harry Potter spells.
Call me an elitist if you may but you cannot deny the satisfaction of spurring out those esoteric words as if they’re common sense: “Of course, the syncytiotrophoblast penetrates the endometrium and produces human chorionic gonadotropin to maintain the corpus luteum.”
Now, if this is not relatable to you, if the words don’t flow as well as they should, here’s what to do: start pronouncing the Latin with an exaggerated Italian accent and have the syllables bounce off your tongue: ‘corpus luteum’ becomes ‘co-r-puss loo-TEA-um’. Learning medical jargon becomes so much more fun when you play around with all the stupid ways of pronouncing them.
Nummer Zwei: Scrubs (2001-2010)
I love Scrubs. I loved every interaction between every character and everything depicted. It’s incredible how they are able to depict the stressfulness of medical internship with striking accuracy whilst still making it appealing. You may call me delusional, but Scrubs has single-handedly made me look forward to working at a hospital.
Номер Три: Being able to diagnose yourself and your family
A joyful part of being a medical student is the validation that arises from correctly identifying a disease based on its symptoms. For reference, I have done that exactly once, where I diagnosed myself with hand, foot, and mouth disease. Unfortunately that was before I got into medicine, and I have had zero success since.
But just think about how cool it is to be a knock-off GP for yourself and your family: “I’m feeling very tired lately, looks like I have an iron deficiency, better get that checked.” Not only that, but eventually we’d be able to go to the pharmacy and understand what most drugs do and how they work, their indications and contraindications. It’s always good to be knowledgeable about things in life you normally take as given.
Numéro Quatre: To be able to wear cool clinical skills fit
If anything, a large chunk of my pursuit of medicine is motivated by its associated drip: there’s a certain essence to wearing those neatly tucked button-up shirts and adorning retractable badge reels. No matter who you are, or where you come from, your self-perception and feeling of importance soar to the moon the moment you slip into that attire. Medicine provides the perfect excuse to wear them every now and then.
Number Five: We’ve made it so far
Ok, let’s get a little serious.
I don’t know about you guys, but during the few days before the Medicine offer round, I had so little confidence in getting into Medicine that I had fully embraced the possibility of me doing another degree. It’s ironic, really, how the very aspiration that once fueled my motivation during the HSC has dwindled to a mere wishful thought.
I consider myself lucky. Exceptionally lucky. The alignment of circumstances required an inconceivable precision for me to just scrape by and gain entry into medicine. Despite my own flaws and inadequacies, I have become the very person I once dreamed of becoming in high school, someone I thought I could never be.
The universe has arranged us thus far because it was destined to be so. To relinquish this opportunity would be a great shame – we will persevere through the trials and adversities of medicine that lie ahead, if for nothing else but to stay true to the promises we made to our younger selves.
Conclusion
Consider this article concluded. Thanks for reading.
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