Two friends passed by while I was having lunch with a friend. I knew that they both had a test coming up in one of the hardest science classes throughout the course of the Pre-medical track -- organic chemistry. They answered something vague but with clear implications that they were nowhere near ready for the exam the next day.
Then, they snickered while asking me:
“So how is your humanities major?”
Even though I am not a humanities major and while this did offend me for a split second, the worst part about this question was the perpetuation of this supposed superiority of anyone choosing to major in anything science or medically related. I do not underestimate the level of difficulty that students of the Pre-Medical track undertake as I was initially one of those students. However, I do not appreciate the stigma that surrounds students who realize that embarking on the journey to become a doctor is not the sole way of attaining success in this day and age.
While Emory is known for its medical school and is a research-based institution, choosing Emory for one’s undergraduate career does not necessarily increase one’s chances of entering its prestigious medical school.
For me, becoming a doctor would have been the safest and most comfortable career choice due to the vast number of doctors in my family: my father is a geriatric specialist, one uncle is a cardiologist, another uncle is an ophthalmologist, and my grandfather was one of the first surgeons in his town in the Dominican Republic. To say the least, I could have easily followed in their footsteps and reached an easy definition of success. However, I realized that the path to success was not solely by saving people and becoming a doctor because success can be defined in many ways.
For me, that means becoming a lawyer. I want to major in public health and practice public health law to fight malpractice lawsuits against doctors. I want to be able to defend doctors who try their absolute hardest and do the absolute most possible to help their patients. Things may happen and things that are out of the hands of those doctors may go wrong but I have seen how hard my own father has worked and have seen all the effort, care, and love that he puts into each patient. Doctors should not have to worry about a patient suing them for something that went wrong that was not in their control.
If this is how my life turns out, practicing law to defend doctors, I will have reached success. At this point in my life, this is what I want. It may easily change and who knows how life and God will get me to my goals other goals that arise.
But, people need to remember that we as a society need many different types of members to function smoothly.
Not everyone can, nor needs to, be a doctor.
