So, if you have come to this website then you want to work somewhere in the medical field. As you guys already know I am Nicole Coca, one of the co-founders of this website. For the next 8 years (4 for undergraduate and 4 for medical school) you will hear the question “Why medicine?” I am not here to tell you what your answer should be, because your answer should be personal and have a meaning to you. Today, I will tell you my reason as to why I chose medicine as a field.
Not to be cliché or whatever but when I was little I always thought that the way my Pediatrician attended me was like he was a superhero and I would always ask him what his job was and all he would respond was “ I make kids like you live healthy lives so one day you can do what I do.” He would never tell me what it was he did until obviously I got older, but that notion that someone can make kids like me healthy made me idolize the notion of being a doctor. When I got to high school, I realized the weight that saying “I want to be a doctor” had. People tell you “Wow you must be smart” or “So you’ll never have kids?” I realized though that the people who were saying that didn’t understand what I always thought being a doctor was. They didn’t see the beauty that I did, so I researched and researched.
I was only a 10th grader and when I found out that the path to “make kids healthy” was long and very muddy, I felt almost discouraged. However, it was during this time that my dad needed to get an appendectomy and when the general surgeon was walking my mom and I through the procedure that I understood why it was worth it and why I want to become a doctor. The way the surgeon explained the procedure and potential risks was as if he was the Disney worker on Splash mountain telling us the safety rules. Of course, you can imagine how my brain then idolized this surgeon, but to make my story short, I emailed the surgeon later and asked him if I could shadow him at his consult clinic and learn how he led a normal 8-5 day. While I was shadowing him, I became enamored with the idea of surgery, because in my head it is a more direct way of making people healthy again. I learned that surgeons can have a normal life, one that includes kids and stable social life.
It was all these perfectly timed experiences that are my reason why. I think it is important to research and shadow as much as you can to really know what you would like to do for potentially the rest of your life.
Sincerely,
Nicole Coca :)
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