Catching up on my blogs for the evening, I came across this post by Tiny Shrink, in which she discusses the nitty gritty of choosing a medical specialty. She does a much better job than me summing up why, exactly, I’m freaking out about picking a career. Most of my attendings and residents are very laissez faire about the whole thing, and defuse my anxiety with wise sayings based on many years of experience.

“Don’t worry, you’ll figure it out.”
“It’s not the end of the world.”
“I knew right away.”
“I honestly wish I had never gone into medicine in the first place.”

Oh wait.

I now know there are doctors - more than I’d like to think - who are miserable because they picked the wrong specialty. Either they didn’t get exposed to the field they should have been in, or they convinced themselves that the money/lifestyle/fame/etc. was more important than doing something they loved.

I’m stressing because I’m still working on the exposure part. So far nothing has really clicked. Once that happens, then I can struggle with the decision to sell out or not†.

†Stay posted, dear readers.