I was never a typical pre-med student. While I have loved science for as long as I can remember – and still do now – as a child I was far more oriented towards art or reading. I wasn’t labeled a “gifted kid” at an early age, and when I developed a strong interest in biology during high school, it took my teachers and family relatively by surprise.
My parents began to imagine my future life as a doctor very quickly after this realization. This wasn’t a career path they had expected for me, but as soon as the possibility emerged, they began to encourage me to pursue medical school. This goal became a focal point in my life, and for many years afterwards, I could only imagine myself going to medical school and eventually entering the medical field. This image of my future became a source of both comfort and anxiety in my life… But there were a few red flags I was ignoring.
Whenever I was in my pre-med centered classes, I would become bored or frustrated when I felt like they were too focused around healthcare or weren’t “sciencey” enough. I felt like I was thriving in my biology classes, but whenever I had to imagine entering the medical field, I felt exhausted. I became more and more disenfranchised with the career path I had imagined for myself. It just didn’t feel right. I felt like this was a future I could never be satisfied with.
The final piece clicked into place when I was able to come back to campus for in-person classes. I took a biology class with a large lab component. This was not my first experience in a lab – I had interned in one as a high schooler, and I had had all of the standard freshman year chemistry labs. However, it had been a long time since I’d had an in person lab, and this one promised to be especially challenging, since we would be responsible for culturing cancer cells. I was so incredibly nervous for my first few assignments, but this lab quickly became the highlight of my week. My successes in this class made me more proud than I had ever felt in a class before, and I finally began to imagine a life outside of the medical field.
From there I started planning out a new path. I started working in a lab on campus and seeking out places to attend grad school for microbiology. The final step was to break the news to my parents, who had been imagining their daughter as a future doctor. I feel that this news was a little disappointing to hear at first, but over time my family became just as convinced as I was that a future in research was a much better fit for me and just as excited to see where this path could take me.
The medical field can sometimes feel like the highest achievement possible for someone interested in biology. It’s easy to see why, since it tends to be one of the highest paying and most discussed fields. However, medical school and a career in the medical field is an extreme commitment, so it should be something you’re passionate about. I’m so much more passionate about lab research, and this change in career paths has truly reignited my excitement about science.
I’m no longer a pre med… but I’ve never been more excited for the future.