science and art

It took me forever-- or what felt close to it-- to commit to walking down this path. Call it indecision or curiosity, but I explored a lot of other roads before I picked this one. And while those other roads were interesting and sometimes fancy, the path of becoming a doctor seems to be the only one that has managed to keep my attention for very long.

But now, the pre-med classes are over, and *only* the MCAT and application process await.

Despite my long courtship with medicine, what really attracts me-- what keeps me interested and willing to trudge through silly labs and long finals-- is medicine's constant and delicate balance of the concrete and abstract.

Did you know that there is a protein that essentially walks around in our cells on tracks carrying products of cellular metabolism? And even though we do not know why many of our cells do not regenerate on their own, researchers at Wake Forest have created functional heart cells using what sort of looks like a color printer? There is so much concrete scientific knowledge to learn, I could never even hope to keep up with every corner of it.

And yet, so much of medicine is more or different than this--- less defined, more abstract, terribly messy and real and amazing and terrifying. I recently discovered this website, 6YearMed, courtesy of L's blog. In a smart, witty, and profound way, this pediatrician speaks about the joys and deep heartbreaks of the art of medicine. Her knowledge and experience far surpasses my own.

A best friend of mine, B, said to me a couple years ago, "Amy, you just need to pick something that seems really hard to you, and go for it. Maybe then you won't get bored."

I think I found my choice. And I don't think there will ever be good reason to be bored.