March 25, 2011

• A Trade off?

  A Question posed by fellow xangan GreekPhysique in response to his Ask YOU anything post:

  “By the very nature of your field (and mine), we end up giving some of the very best years of our lives to hard work for little pay in exchange for a much better deal after 30 (or 40, depends). How do you feel about that trade you have made right now, and how do you keep yourself from thinking you made a bad deal?”

  Well Greek, I would start by saying I disagree with your fundamental assertion. From a young age we constantly hear how whatever period we are currently in is “the best years of your life” whether it is elementary school, highschool, college, early 20′s, etc. Making the statement that something is the best implies that all the things following simply cannot measure up, whereas I find that each year my life just gets better and better. Not every moment is full of sunshine and lollipops but neither have I noticed a downhill trend as of yet

  However, that said, I can appreciate that we do sacrifice a number of potential high earning years until later, while my friends who went into business or law started pulling down six figure incomes before I even was done taking loans or beginning residency. As to how I feel about that trade, I dont regret any of it. I chose to apply myself to medicine with full knowledge of certain aspects of what I was getting into, and I still feel that I would not have been nearly as happy or satisfied in any other field. My other interests, comedy and cooking, I have continued through residency, and when I finally retire from medicine I will pick up and develop those in further detail. So I keep myself from thinking I made a bad deal by continuing to enjoy my life and what I am doing

  • 5:56 pm
  • 3 Comments