In the almost eight years since starting this blog, my priorities in life have changed a lot: from wanting to become a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, to pursuing surgery, to becoming a mom who wants ample time for my grandma hobbies. Back in college (or was it high school?), I remember asking my roomie what she envisioned for her future. She said something along the lines of “living a comfortable life abroad and teaching”.
I thought she was being ridiculous.
How could she just waste her talents and intellect by not doing more? Why wouldn’t she rather do something groundbreaking and leave a lasting impact on the world?! Only after having M did I realize that I was being ridiculous. Life doesn’t revolve around accomplishing everything all the time. I realized that a comfortable life with those I love is the ultimate goal. But that didn’t mean letting go of my lofty lofty goals, it just meant turning them into my passion side-hustle.
Having worked/shadowed in several specialties over the years, I realized a few things: I loved doing procedures, I loved the OR (operating room), and I loved really getting to know the people I worked with. I think I had the most fun in neurosurgery: the staff, the vibes (well, maybe not the 90s alternative, haha), and the pathology. But what I lived for were those uncommon/complex cases. The tumor or cranial mesh removals. The interventional cath lab cases for cerebral clot removal. But not so much the neck and spine surgeries that made up the day-to-day. But I quickly got bored with the bread-and-butter cases in most specialties.
After watching Jacob struggle to find his fit in medical school, and my failed application cycle (which I was so relieved not to have received any interviews for), I figured maaaaaybe medical school was not the right fit for me.
After an extended hiatus from patient-facing work (and becoming jaded by health-tech), I took my first nursing class online in summer 2024. Once it finished, I still felt ambivalent. I paused school again while working (which I completely failed to balance with home life, having two under two). I absolutely loved my patients, but left because I was so ashamed at how much I struggled. I took a break for a few months and re-enrolled for classes in the fall of 2025, which finally made me feel like I was on the right path.
Taking the nursing prerequisites has been so much more fulfilling than completing those for med (learning about anatomy and lifespan development vs. organic chemistry and physics). It has also been infuriating seeing which (typically humanity-based) courses are required for nursing but not for medical school. I feel that this creates a great disservice to patients and providers. All of this to say, though, that while both professions are important and intellectually challenging, the scheduling flexibility, opportunity to change specialties, and more humanistic approach to medicine make me feel much more excited to be pursuing nursing.