“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
– Robert A. Heinlein
That’s quite a start for an article, eh? Now don’t go on ‘YouTube’ing how to butcher a hog, or die gallantly in battle. We have enough of things to read about already! I’m very certain that a lot of you medical graduates always have this question at the back of your minds:
“What do I specialize in?”
Very rarely, in my teaching career, (it’s just 5 years, so I wouldn’t really call it a career) have I seen students who say, “Sir, I am still figuring out where my aptitude lies.” Or, “I haven’t figured out my journey yet, and as time passes, I’ll get more clarity, and perhaps then, I’d be in a better situation to answer that question.” The most common answer is “Whatever is available for that rank.” Seriously? You are saying that you want to spend the rest of your life, (that’s another 75% of it, if you live long enough) doing something that you got, according to a rank that was decided by a 3 hour exam ?
The reason for that is simple. We are not looking far enough. We are engulfed with the idea that we want to be good doctors. No, great doctors! Most of us anyway. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Ambition is beautiful. But the inability to understand what we’re fighting for, or what we truly want; now that, is a problem.
There’s a great deal of hard work, consistency and sacrifice that goes in making a great doctor. And if that is a journey one chooses, he/she must learn (or at least try) to be at peace with the difficulties along the way.It is okay if that journey is not for you. It definitely wasn’t for me. I chose a different path. Well, not exactly. Let me tell you a bit about myself.
My name is Dr. Sunit Jadhav. I go by the artist name Sunit Zadav, (I believe the Z is good for showbiz :p) and I’m an Assistant Professor in Anatomy, a Singer-Songwriter and a novice guitarist. I’m not exceptionally brilliant at either of these things, and what I am writing today is more for medical students who feel that there could’ve been another life for them out there.
To conclude it right away, it’s never too late, and there is no reason to quit this amazing course if you find your dreams changing at this really critical age, when your personality is undergoing a very important transition.
This article is just my perspective, and I do not expect everyone to agree with it. Here is my little take on why each of you should feel blessed that you landed up here. And it’s never too late to pursue whatever you’re passionate about, even after you have the ‘Dr.’ prefix added to your name.
I was always a bright student in school. Good in math, good in biology. It was in first year MBBS that I realized that my interest in sketching and my natural aptitude for drawing made anatomy an interesting subject for me. While the others hated it because of the Greek and the Latin, the supero-medial surface and the infero-lateral surface; my right dominant brain and I found it much easier to imagine, interpret and conceptualize anatomy.
So much that I often taught my roommates everything they missed in the early morning Embryology lectures. They said I’d make a really cool anatomy teacher. Around the same time, I found myself playing for two bands, a nu-age rock band called SOS with my school buddies, and the medical college band Prognosis Negative. (Haha, yeah! Don’t YouTube this either! We were pathetic.)
So at the age of 20, just like anyone else at that age, I didn’t have anything figured out and here I was, pursuing the dreaded 5 year course of MBBS. Whenever I asked myself “what’s next?”, “what would I be specializing in?” I found myself in the same limbo, as some of you.
One day, I changed the question. I asked myself, “what would I love to do on most days of my life?” “What would make me content on most days?” And the answer to that was simple: making art. And that’s what I do. Leonardo Da Vinci always said that
There’s a science behind every art and an art behind every science
Teaching anatomy is art too! Surgery is art too! Similarly, playing music is a science! The point I’m trying to make here is, just because you find yourself more inclined towards inter-college cultural festivals and sleeping in the lecture halls, doesn’t mean you’re in the wrong course. You’re just looking at it the wrong way.
Think of an Anatomist teaching the middle ear by creating a 3D model together with his entire batch. Think of a Microbiologist teaching immunology with the help of illustrations! A very angry looking Killer T lymphocyte, and a calm T suppressor lymphocyte chilling together with an antigen in handcuffs. Would you fall asleep then?
Why should medical students be so lost and not focus on the multifaceted development of their brain? Why only academics? Why not art?
Our education system has not evolved as much as other fields. We still have one teacher talking and hundreds listening and taking down notes. Where is the creativity in that? When was the last time you kept your phones aside and felt the rush of learning something new in a lecture hall? Something cool. Something funny. Something different. Something interesting. We are not curious anymore.
We are judging a fish by its ability to climb a tree, aren’t we? We need more creative teachers. And we need more inquisitive students.
So, for everybody who feels out of place in this course.
- Firstly, try to look at your textbooks in a different way. Think of them as stories. Apply. Be curious.
- Go hang with those super nerdy people who head straight to the library post college. And sometimes, take them out too. Show them a good movie. A well made film, in terms of acting, in terms of filmmaking technique.
- Go for a live concert. Not one where thousands are screaming and one man is miming on the mic. But a small place where someone is pouring his heart out through music. You will instantly sense the honesty and the emotion in the atmosphere.
- There’s something insanely cool about being multifaceted. About being passionate. Passionate about everything that you see and hear.
- Read about the spinal cord in the day and go dancing in the evening. Feel. Feel how there’s so many muscles, agonists and antagonists, playing in harmony with each other, all controlled by the alpha-gamma reflex loop!
Science is everywhere. Art is everywhere. Open your eyes and your ears. Open your minds.
And after your 5 year course ends, if you don’t get into the so called highly paying clinical specializations, maybe you could end up taking a pre-clinical teaching job? Get into para-clinical research? What about MBA? Go meet new people. Interesting people. People who are really passionate about what they do.
Bear in mind however, that it is foolish to let go off opportunity in the quest for your passion. Because passion may change. Opportunity will not.
You know you are here. Doing this course. Don’t drop out. Look for opportunities. Create opportunities! Look for the road less traveled. There’s risk, I agree. But there’s life too. There’s adventure.
Think about it. You could feel stuck in this course looking at the vast ocean of time and knowledge that you have to cross to finally become a successful, practicing clinician. Or you could just live every day filled with creativity and curiosity. Take baby steps and have short targets. Daily. Weekly. Then monthly. And maybe you’ll connect deeper inside of you, and your journey will take a new course? And what if you fail in your exams? What if an academic year is wasted? Is that really failure? Think about it.
Don’t be afraid of failing. Some of the greatest achievers today have failed in class. And who defines success and failure? You do. Not society. Not the thousand years of educational conditioning that we are all victims of.
DO NOT LET AN EXAMINATION JUDGE YOUR INTELLECT!
Human beings are the only animals on the planet who can talk and read and write. Communicate. Make art. The pre-frontal cortex that we are blessed with is a sign of supreme evolution. So much that some evolutionary scholars literally think there’s a missing link in the evolutionary chain. All I’m saying is, maybe we can be everything.
Remember, nobody is in the wrong course. Nobody is in the wrong profession. You’ve got your entire lives ahead of you. Keep learning. Keep living.
– Dr. Sunit Jadhav.
[MD Anatomy]
Dr. Sunit Jadhav (age 29 years) is an assistant professor in Anatomy, currently completing his post MD bond in Hinduhridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Medical College and Dr. R. N. Cooper Hospital, Juhu, Mumbai. He is also a singer-songwriter and is currently recording his debut album titled Quarter Life Crisis. He often performs live in Pune and Mumbai and you can follow him, his music and his journey through his social media links given below.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCikwS0Jke4eGpm4pxxJIyEA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sunitzadav
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunitzadav/
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