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There’s no shortcut to becoming a doctor. There are ways where you can shave a year or two here or there. You might apply to a combined 6-7 year BA/MD program in the states. You can save a year if you apply abroad (either in the UK, Ireland, Australia, etc) right out of high school. You might end up doing only 2 or 3 years of undergrad and get accepted to a Canadian school that doesn”t require applicants to have a degree. Hundreds of people graduate from 3 year programs at McMaster and Calgary each year. You may even be the youngest graduating medical student of your year, but to become a doctor, and not just someone who can pass licensing exams, takes a lifetime.

What I mean is that graduating in the shortest amount of time or at the youngest age doesn’t make you a doctor. It’s not about how many letters behind your name you obtain or how many hoops you can jump through quickly. To become a “doctor” is more than just having an MD behind your name.

You can’t know what being a doctor is until you have been at it for a while. Some people may take ten years, some twenty, before they are comfortable and aware of what being a doctor means. Your view of medicine and the role you play evolves as you go through your medical training. Your patient encounters shape who you will eventually become.

My view of what being a doctor means four years ago, two years ago and today is constantly changing, and will continue to do so. You began to appreciate and understand life and death in new ways. You meet many people that will alter the way you see the world. You will take care of society’s forgotten and marginalized: drug addicts, people suffering from mental health, homeless citizens, people who have never known what being healthy means.

As I reflect back on the last few years, I remember a time when I was impressed by people who had graduated earlier than their peers, perhaps achieved some big shot position soon after and had a distinguished career established sooner than expected. Now I realize, that’s only a small part of the bigger picture.

I guess my main point is you shouldn’t care about how long it takes for you to become a doctor. Some people have to apply several times before they make it in to medical school. Lots of people have had other careers before they decided to become a doctor. Others have been in school their whole lives and have never known anything else. Whatever the case is, each person becomes a doctor in their own time. And even if a person takes the shortest route (straight from high school, graduates early, chooses the shortest program, etc), it still adds up to a long time. So don’t worry about how long it takes for you to become a doctor but focus on becoming the best doctor you can be.

It’s shocking how much you change as person in your first clinical year. For the most part, the first two years of medical school is a continuation of your undergrad class experience. You may learn more knowledge at a quicker pace, but the format remains the same. You study for a test, you write the test, you go on to the next subject.

8 months since entering the wards, I find myself a different person. Not so much that my personality has changed but more because I have been exposed to things I have never seen or done before.

You see new life come into the world, you see people take their last breaths. You have to discuss with patient’s and families about the end of life and how they wish to proceed. You meet and interact with the most marginalized groups in society. People who live on the streets, drug addicts, people who have gone through a lifetime of abuse. You get the chance to open up someone’s body to fix them. Suicidal people no longer faze you. A year ago, the though of sticking your finger into someone’s rectum was revolting. Now, it’s just another routine examination that is necessary to do.

People trust you because you wear a white coat, or because you hang a stethoscope around your neck, even when you feel like you know nothing. It’s a whirlwind of emotions and experiences that I have yet to sort out. It’s all jumbled up, there’s little time to just think about it all because that time is often spent making up for lost sleep.

“You can’t understand it until you get there,” said those who have gone there before me. I agree with them.

The CARMs Match day was just this Monday… which means in about a year’s time, it’ll be my turn.

It frightens and stresses me out. It seems like there’s still so much to learn and do. I feel the pressure to start “playing the game” by showing my face to program directors, arranging electives, looking good for references, etc.

It’s the stress of getting into medical school all over again… but this time you’re competing nation-wide… with other medical students.