The Salesman

Again I wonder if I'm a bad person for telling people the reasons I chose PA school over med school. Some people respond well. Tonight I had the exact opposite experience that I had in that older post.

The pre-med student asked questions about what I thought about her goals, and I answered them truthfully. She listened to the reason why I chose PA over medschool. After everything she said I was a "very good salesman." That made me feel dirty. I'm not trying to "sell" the profession. The profession sold itself to me. I'm just showing her what I liked about it.

I truly am not someone who tries to talk people out of med school. We need doctors. For some people medschool is a better match than PA school. But also there are many, many doctors who realize too late that this isn't what they signed up for. I listened to those doctors and took those opinions into account when I made my decision. I'm a big fan of basing decisions off other people's experience. I realize that I'm not that different from others. If a lot of people tell me one thing, chances are I will react the same way. So if most docs tell me "DON'T DO MED SCHOOL" and most PAs tell me "I LOVE MY JOB," then what's the logical thing to choose?

This specific pre-med's concern was whether she could have a family life, while being a physician. I think this is one of the hardest things to accomplish. Some specialties lend itself better to family life than others. She said cardiothoracic surgery. That is not one of them... I told her that 70%+ of most PA classes are woman. If you asked them why PA and not MD most will tell you "because it's easier to balance being a PA with having a family." It's true.

In college I shadowed a very intense breast cancer surgeon. She was trained by the best and wasn't above name dropping. She talked about job offers she got at Mayo Clinic and such. She was full of herself, but she was good and she was also very happy. The latter was surprising. I asked her if she had any children. She said no, and "by choice." Her profession was her love and enjoyed going home and spending time with her husband. I respected this answer immensely. She knew what she wanted in life, and was honest with herself. She was happy because she understood the reality of the situation.

I'm not the one crushing dreams. It's the reality of life that does that. In the long run I think I'm helping people by pointing out the truths that people like to ignore. Ignoring reality doesn't help anyone, it only prolongs disappointment.