Chances are, if you clicked on this article, you're interested in obstetrics and gynecology. Or maybe you're just wondering why on Earth anyone would want to subject themselves to studying for roughly ten years of medical school, a lifetime of erratic sleep schedules, stressful hospital environments, and working with the most complicated organism to exist: women.

I grew up being obsessed with becoming the world's first singer/violinist/veterinarian/doctor/dancer/author. All at once. That ridiculous dream ended right around age five when I realized that I love naps and you know, not drowning in work. I also learned that reality is very, very, very different from fantasy. For a long time, my interest in medicine was fairly generic. It was mostly influenced by my family, especially since three out of four of my mother's siblings are doctors in rural and urban India. I figured that if I ever made it to medical school, I would just become a family practitioner or a pediatrician. But after about seven years of doctor's appointments with my own family practitioner, I learned that if I were to become one myself, every single work day would look exactly the same, at least if I practiced in the United States. Wake up at six a.m. and start appointments at eight a.m. Diagnose one sniffling, runny-nosed kid after another with the same thing. I initially tried to justify the potential monotony, but I realized that I never wanted one day to be the exact same as the previous.

I'm a weird person. Like honestly- I. Am. Weird. I don't love spontaneity and hate not having a plan for things, so theoretically, it doesn't make sense that I would be interested in a career that could be summed up by those two characteristics. At the same time, I love being challenged and experiencing new things every day. Around my junior and senior year of high school, I became more interested in obstetrics and gynecology as I started to work on an independent project to increase women's access to menstrual hygiene products. If you're below the age of twenty, I'll bet seven dollars (and some change) that your inner voice just said cringed when you had to read "menstrual" with your own eyes. Get over it folks, it's just blood.

Anyways, working on that independent project brought some really interesting observations to my mind. For example, ladies- have you ever realized that when you start talking about your period with your girlfriends in public, you start speaking in a more hushed tone? It's like we're all a bunch of Ron Weasleys terrified of just saying Voldemort's name. It's a name for a thing. There's also a plethora of other women's rights issues that arise when we examine the status of women's healthcare in the United States; if I got into all of those here, this article would never end. Instead, here's a tiny (extensive) list of them that I'll save for future articles: abortion rights, birth control access, sexual violence, maternal health, and mental health. But like I was saying, we women become very self conscious when discussing our health issues because it's taboo and only an issue for others when we want to make more medical intensive decisions about our body. Yikes, sorry for letting my inner feminist get ahold of my keyboard just then.

Apart from this social revolution I was experiencing as I studied women's healthcare, I also found that I truly enjoyed working to make a difference for women. I grew up in a household with incredible women who were determined in everything they set out to accomplish. While my mother would typically be described as a "tiger mom" to any non-Indian child, I found that her strictness and overprotectiveness were a sign of her resilience and strength in raising me. In my senior year of high school, I really ran with the whole "I want to be an OB-GYN" idea and started interning at the local Athens Women's Clinic with an OB/GYN. I spent a whole year seeing the behind-the-scenes of women's healthcare and what it really took to care for women. I also interned with a doctor in rural India one summer and experienced a wider range of healthcare for women and children. I was lucky enough to observe a variety of medical procedures and physician-patient interactions that made me realize the many reasons I want to go into the field of obstetrics and gynecology.

I've always been very detail-oriented in my work; AKA, I'm a perfectionist. Don't be fooled though. I am still a major procrastinator, but I am lucky enough to possess the skill of creating great work at the last minute. I'm also a very good "people-reader," if I do say so myself. I've always been very observant of people's behaviors and emotions- it's not the best skill to have when trying to make fast friends, but it's good for finding those life-long friends that you'll always be emotionally attached to. Turns out, being an OB/GYN is a unique specialty that combines surgical skills and primary care.

As an OB/GYN, you usually care for your patients for more than a decade and in most cases, you'll get to deliver their children and watch as they grow. You really get to know your patients and make a difference in their health throughout their lifespan, instead of just a few appointments here and there to fix one little thing. You never want to see your patients too often though, because then that means that something is really wrong. In some more serious situations, you get to guide your patients through more severe illnesses, such as cancer diagnoses and infertility issues. You grow closer with the patient through consistency, which only helps you serve them better. In fact, even in my one year just shadowing a local OB/GYN, I weirdly was able to recognize patients in public, converse with them, and recall the stories they told us during their appointment- you know, those rushed anecdotes they come up with on the spot to make the situation less awkward? Yeah, those ones.

Overall, obstetrics and gynecology is a commitment to more than just the medicine and that is an aspect of the field that I truly admire. It grants an opportunity to support women and advocate for our needs over an entire lifetime. There is never one way to practice, thanks to the challenge of cultural and religious perspectives. Additionally, the complexity and technology of the field is rapidly evolving, leading to better genetic testing and more minimally invasive surgical techniques.

I also wish to perhaps serve in Doctors without Borders one day, and obstetrics/gynecology is a field where you have the opportunity to care for underserved women both domestically and globally. Most current practicing OB/GYNs advise against choosing the field, citing nighttime calls and heavy work weeks as major downsides to the occupations; however, I can't wait to embrace the career that perfectly fits my nighttime owl personality.