How to become a doctor (2)

But what if you’ve got problems, obstacles that you don’t see any way around? What if you’re a teen parent with a one year old child to take care of, or perhaps one on the way? What if you’re dyslexic or handicapped with only one arm or some other thing that will make coursework difficult if not impossible or will make those who hire doctors not hire you?

Let’s take a look at the teen parent problem first. You have a one year old child and you haven’t yet graduated. How are you going to go to college and then medical school while your kid is growing up? How are you going to pay for it all? Who’s going to watch your child while you’re in class, while you’re doing homework, while you’re taking exams?

Short answer – you don’t. You don’t give up your dream, but you don’t make it nearly impossible for yourself to do. It is entirely possible and sometimes highly practical to put your dream on hold for a while to do something else that will not wait – like raise your child. Now, you could move in with people who will help raise your child, take care of your kid while you’re in school. You could find scholarships galore to pay for it. But if that’s just too much for you (and for some people, just being a new parent is almost too much by itself), then raise your kid and do a bunch of “before” work for your dream.

You don’t give up, you don’t put your dream on a shelf and forget it completely, and you don’t make the child feel guilty for the delay you’re choosing. Because that’s all it is – a delay. And there is a lot of things you can do in the meantime to prepare yourself for when you can start your dream back up.

What can you do?

Whenever you take your child into the doctor, ask questions. A lot of questions. If your doctor doesn’t have the time, ask for a nurse to come back in. Or make an appointment for just the nurse in order to ask questions.

If you have the time, volunteer at the hospital, a clinic, a free clinic. See if they have any jobs. Any jobs. You will be in an atmosphere of health and medicine, and you can learn things about medicine that you wouldn’t normally. You will be a more valuable volunteer and a higher paid employee (in many places) if you know a second language and are able to act as an interpreter for patients that don’t speak English.

Read journals and magazines that talk about medical breakthroughs and practices. See if your library carries any. Try Discover, Scientific American, or Prevention. Or search their database for anything with “medicine” or “medical” or “health” in the title. If they don’t have these things, request that they get them. In the meantime, check out the medical articles in Reader’s Digest, AARP, and other popular magazines. While they don’t have their entire issue devoted to health, they’ll most likely have articles that talk about health issues. Check the web for free magazine offers and subscriptions. If your library can’t get one, perhaps you can. You can always donate the magazines to your library afterwards, if you don’t want a lot of magazines cluttering your home.

If your child’s school offers free first aid courses, take them. If your child’s school (more likely high school) offers any programs on health and prevention, go to them. If your child is taking a biology or health or physical education course that involves any text books that your child brings home, check and see if they have any chapters of interest to you.

If you have the time and can afford it, take a night class (or day class if you have a night job) or an on-line class that will get you started with college credits. Why not get a jump start on your degree?

Save for college tuition – for yourself, for your child(ren). Never underestimate the power of compound interest, the ability to turn a dollar into much more when allowed to gather up interest over several years (like the 17 or so until your child no longer needs your complete attention?).

You can do it. Maybe it’ll take you until you hit 50 to become a doctor, but you can become a doctor. Don’t let someone criticize you or make fun of you because of how old you’ll be when you become a doctor. Become one anyway. Don’t let other people steal your dreams.

Are you dyslexic? Dyslexics can learn how to read and read well. Maybe it’ll take you a little extra time to get through the text books, but does that mean you’ll be any less of a doctor? Take half a course load each semester, work on your reading. It’ll take you longer, but what’s the price of a given up dream? A piece of your soul. Isn’t a piece of your soul worth taking a little longer to become your dream?

Are you handicapped, one arm or one leg or something like that? Are there doctors out there who also have one arm or one leg? Find them. Find out how they did it. Helen Keller was a college graduate, and she didn’t have sight or hearing. It can be done. And if it hasn’t before, if there truly are no one-armed or one-legged doctors in the world? Become the first. Be the first one and become an inspiration to the rest of the world. And don’t let your dreams be limited. Perhaps you won’t become a surgeon, but is that the only type of doctor that will satisfy you? Is your dream to become a doctor or to become a surgeon or to become world known or to help people heal or what? What is your dream? Live it out. You can do that.

I highly suggest to everyone who has a dream but thinks that they can’t do it, get a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul and it’s sequels – not the specialty ones (women’s, couples’, survivors’, etc.), but the main ones (2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.). You will find in the majority of them a “story” called “Consider This”. It contains a bunch of stories about people who completed their dreams at a late age or despite other obstacles or despite being turned down by publishers or cut from the athletic team or flunking out of school. They did it, and you can do it. Create the Future with your dream not only intact but realized. You can do this.