There is one thing that remained constant throughout my life, from the time I started kindergarten to present day: my dream of becoming a doctor. Now, when you grow up with a certain goal always taking priority in your mind, it only makes sense that all your passions should align with it, right?

After all, wouldn’t it make sense for me, an aspiring future healthcare professional, to be completely devoted to the realm of the natural sciences? My younger self came to terms with this seemingly reasonable “requirement”, and I spent years trying to dedicate myself to only the sciences, because at the time, it seemed impossible to juggle a variety of interests.

Enter sophomore year of high school, with a stubborn 15-year-old girl who planned for AP Chemistry to be her best and favorite class of the year. The school year she had planned out for herself went a little off balance, as she found herself taking an interest in writing (and found herself to be surprisingly successful at it).

With an English teacher encouraging and consistently pushing her outside her comfort zone, and a head full of thoughts that often went unspoken, writing came rather naturally as a means of being able to better communicate what may have otherwise been overlooked. I came to realize that writing not only allowed others to come to know who I am as a person, but also allowed for my own self-actualization and development.

Being a somewhat soft-spoken person, I had gotten used to being spoken over, being told who I am or who I should be, but writing allowed me to solidify such things for myself. Writing allowed me to maintain my individuality in a world that revolves around the pressure to conform to the “norm”.

But the story isn’t over yet. Even after realizing that writing fulfilled my intrinsic need to let out my voice, alarm bells went off in the back of my mind as I started to wonder whether it would be possible to pull off both of my dreams.

I started to wonder whether it would be possible to not have to sacrifice either of my passions; whether I would be able to become a doctor if I could not dedicate 100% of myself to the art of science; whether I would be satisfied if I did not leave any time for my passion for writing. I wanted to help people, in the sense of both physical healing and emotional healing that writing has the means to provide.

With these contradictory emotions raging through my mind, I took to doing what I do best in times of distress - Googling every possible way the situation could play out, and then deciding on whether to pay attention to the best or worst case scenario.

Through my research I came to the conclusion that my love for writing and my love for discovery could indeed coexist, and that being passionate about writing could even boost my success in becoming a doctor (because part of the job description includes publishing studies and giving lectures, after all). They say some of the most important qualities needed in physicians are empathy and passion, and it is through writing that I am able to best channel both.