Why become a doctor?
Overview
Why become a doctor? If you’re in it purely for the money, the answer is, “don’t”. You can earn big in the medical profession but you don’t want to do it for that reason alone. The big bucks are spread thin and they’re paid for a lifetime of extraordinary application, stress and skill.
Why most people want to become a doctor is: they want to help. They’re prepared for that stress and that skill to rule their lives. Because they know that they have something that can be used to lessen the suffering in the world. They might have had a personal experience with the medical profession – a loved one saved from illness, a baby delivered – that has motivated them to give something back. Why they become a doctor might be a conviction that they have something to give that will help diminish the human body’s burden of frailty and disease. Or they may have seen the final days of an elderly relative eased with dignity and professionalism. Why become a doctor? Because experiences like this make us realise that without doctors, the world would be a difficult and a worse place.
So why should you become a doctor? What’s the experience that made you consider the medical profession? The reasons why you should become a doctor – the reasons why anyone should become a doctor – are inseparable from the events that made you, or them, consider it. No-one just wakes up and thinks “I’m going to become a doctor” – why they do it is because they are inspired to do it. Because they have seen that this difficult profession, with its dangerous weight of responsibility for the lives of others, can perform miracles. Why people become a doctor is wrapped up in the greatest human emotion: hope. That hope can come from something as ordinary as seeing a medical drama on TV or as extreme as being cured of cancer. Where it comes from is immaterial. That’s why people become a doctor; it’s why you’ll become a doctor; and, when you have become a doctor, you might end up being the reason why someone else decides to become a doctor too.
