"The first time I went dissecting a cadaver, was horrible. The night before, I went out with friends, because it was the birthday of one of our friends, and i wanted an excuse to get out and forget about the followin day's work. We stayed out late and we drank a lot. The next day, I could not wake up, and I almost missed my dissection class: unfortunately my mother woke me up just in time so that I could come in late.It was so embarassing, not only because I was late, and everybody who were present, noticed it and stared at me to make me feel even more uncomfortable, but my shoes made strange sounds as well ( I was later told that that was my empty stomach ). Anyway, when I came into the cadaver room, I started to feel a bit dizzy.The clear sound of the voice of our instructor directing us on how to dissect the human body started to be muffled, and the next thing I knew I was laying down, staring up at a lot of faces of people I never met before in my whole life, all of them in white coats. I know now that they were all my instructors, and luckily for me, they were all doctors, so they knew what to do, because it seems, I shamelessly fainted during pre-dissection talk."
What do you expect me to do? To refer back to you a story similar to this? Well, I am sorry, I can't, because it didn't happen like this. Everybody ask me 'What is it like to be doing medicine?', which is after 'You must be a very clever person, to be doing medicine, eh?' in the top ten list of the most frequently asked questions.
I would really like to know whether they expect me to say 'Yeah, I am a genius because I am doing medicine and you not!' or 'You don't know what hell medicine is'.The thing is that I can't honestly give any of those two answers.
I like doing medicne, that's why I am still here doing a course long 7 years rather than change.But there are so many myths about medicine. Naturally, I DO love the course, I think it's the best in the world, especially the one in Monash. But then, the same thing, a commerce student might say about his course if he really likes it. ( In this case I am using for the hypothetycal commerce student a male gender because it's slightly shorter than the female gender).I know that it seems difficult: I admit, among other things, that touching cadavers was not one of my secret dreams when I was a child. But those are just small incoveniences, worth havign for the bigger picture. Even if you are cynical and do not believe that most of us want to become doctors because we want to help others, but rather because we want the money and the prestige, you will still have to admit that the many years of study allow us to understand the human being better.
Medicine is certainly a demanding lover, but it's also a rewarding lover. Would you compare the pleasure of knowing that because I did my work properly, someone's life has been saved instead of being lost uselessly? It's not even a feeling like playing god: if god exists, then , no matter how much doctors might work, if god decreted that someone should be dead, then that person will be dead. It's jsut the mere pleasure of being useful, of knowing that we contributed to alleviate someone's pain in life.
And truthfully, it's not such a demanding life, either.Of course one has to spend plenty of times on books, but the way out course has been structured, help us to cement friendships among ourselves. We get to know each other better, and we form true friendships. Even friendships outside our course are quite feasible, it all depends on how much someone wants to keep them, and their degree of organisation and flexibility. It's almost a test of true character.The academic life is certainly important, but there is more to it than just books.