career advice

[CrazyMedic]

so my dream in life is to become a surgeon but being realistic I know this might not happen, I am fairly confident I can get through pre-med I am just unsure about med school so I am trying to think of things I can do with pre-med skills, really all I is chemist. S any other paths you guys could suggest and what would be involved in becoming a chemist as well.

ps I live in the US.

 

[Elysis]

Why wouldn't you be a surgeon? If it's your dream, why wouldn't you be able to achieve it?

Here's the thing. Yes, Med School is hard. So hard in fact that it will change the person you are. And you won't think too much about it because you'll be so wrapped up in studying that you won't realize that you will have become nothing but the ghost of who you used to be.
You'll work 12 hours a day, everyday, even on Christmas, and when you'll take a break or take some time off, you'll feel so guilty that you'll just go back to learning that boring chapter of Histology.
You'll want to cry, a lot, the library will be your new bff, and you'll have time for nothing. You'll look like crap, gain some weight, and will be able to talk of NOTHING ELSE but your anatomy labs.

You will never see your friends, never see your family, and when you do graduate, it won't be over because you will have your Residency and it'll be even worse because you'll literally spend your life at the hospital. Specially if you're a Surgical intern.

But on the other side, you'll be able to do the most beautiful and gratifying job in the world. You won't always be helping nice people of course, sometimes you'll even have to heal complete assholes. But you'll also give people back their lives, you'll bring back hope, and give another chance at people. You'll help deliver babies. Help an old man walk again with hip surgery. Rebuild someone's face after a car accident. Med school SUCKS. But it's worth it.

"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens"
If after everything I have said completely demotivated you then you, you're better off working in a lab or as a professor in some university. If not, then you might just be alright.

 

[WolfThomas]

I'm a fourth year medical student, though in Australia so that's undergraduate. While studying medicine is challenging work, it's often actually harder to get into medicine than to study it, so if you manage to get in then half the battles won. The big difficulty is getting in to a surgical training program (at least other here) but that's pretty much achievable if you're willing to take many years to get (doing HMO surg work, training courses, getting references).

So if that's your dream then there's really nothing stopping you if you work hard (though I guess costs of college being the US).