Why Medicine?

“Why medical school?”

For so long I didn’t know how to properly answer that question. When people ask me why I chose to pursue a career in medicine, the first thing that usually comes out my mouth is: “I love to help people.” Cliché right? You can pretty much ask any pre-med student why they are interested in medicine and 50% will say the exact same thing. 

But to me, the question runs much deeper than that. Why medicine? If someone were to ask me this question right about now I would probably pause for a moment to think. Not because I wouldn’t know what to say, but because I wouldn’t know where to begin.

Many kids know at a young age know what they want to be. A singer, a dancer, an artist, even an astronaut! Me? I wanted to become a massage therapist. Yep. Now you’re probably wondering, “How do you go from wanting to be a massage therapist to wanting to become a double board certified doctor in Pediatrics and Internal Medicine?” Simple. I wanted to do more. I wanted to contribute more to my community.

What made me want to become a Med-Ped?

I was always good at science and helping others was something that I genuinely enjoyed doing. Science + helping others = Doctor. For a while I had convinced myself that I wanted to become a massage therapist for the simple fact that everyone said that I was good at it, especially at a young age. When I was younger, my father experienced pain in his thumb. Not knowing what the cause we assumed that it was because of the sudden change of weather. (My father’s body is very delicate when it comes to the winter. Everything hurts inside of him lol. To any actual doctors reading this, diagnosis please?). After a couple of days the pain in his thumb continued. Because I was quite young (about 9) I didn’t know what was going on but all I could say to my dad was, “Daddy do you want me to massage your thumb for you?” While I knew that my dad was in a lot of pain I also knew that I had to be extra careful.  It was as if my hands had a mind of their own. They knew which way to pull, which way to bend and where to touch and not touch. My mom use to tell me that I had “gifted hands.” Although I had found something that I was good at, I still felt as if it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t until I hit my teenage years that I realized how good I was with kids. It wasn’t until then that I realized not only did I want to become a doctor but also I wanted to work with children.

My desire to become a doctor grows every day. Sometimes it’s hard to explain my passion to others because there are some days when I am at loss for words myself. There are some days when I mentally curse at the 9am class that I have to wake up for every morning but then I remember why I’m doing it. Success doesn’t come easy. But when it does come, you’ll be so glad that you woke up for that 8:45 and 9:00am class every morning lol! When you are truly passionate about something, you will go through great lengths to achieve it in every way possible.

Xoxo, Medgina.

Arizona

- Grey's Anatomy