Monday, January 19, 2009

Coulda, but not Woulda, and not Shoulda.

We have several friends here who aren't in medical school, but are rather pursuing degrees in history, or law, or other paths not connected with the diseased human form. In speaking with them, I can sometimes glimpse the world of what might have been. I studied history and french literature as an undergrad, before turning my sights on medical school. I thoroughly enjoyed history, and have since I first read Winston Churchill's "Memoirs of the Second World War" as a 4th grader in france starved for english reading material. My sister is also studying history, in fact in a domain that I find fascinating, the Great War. When listening to their stories of school and the esoterica of their respective fields of interest, I feel a sense of loss for the intellectual discourse and discovery that the pursuit of historical research provided me as an undergradate, and which I no longer have as a medical student. In many ways the first two years of medical school are not very challenging from an intellectual standpoint. School is not easy, it requires lots of work and time, but the material itself is, with the exception of renal physiology, not too challenging. The challenge of these first two years is not in articulating and researching new interpretations of bygone machinations of the Hapsburg empire, but rather in simply force feeding my brain a large volume of material in a small amount of time.
When I consider the alternative, which I did 3 years ago when I applied to medical school, I would not choose to study history or French literature, however. As I wrote my senior thesis, such as it was, I was more depressed than I had been since my mission. I didn't realize it then, but that pushed me more firmly away from history and towards medicine. I enjoy medical school and the material I'm learning, even at the expense of having the joy of intellectual discovery a graduate history degree might have afforded me.

3 comments:

Madame Palmkey said...

Oh, Boney. History is fantastic, there is no way around that. I love that I have a weekly book club with incredibly intelligent motivated people all about history. I love the silly history jokes and the impossible snobbishness of it, I love the friendliness. But you're right, you don't want the depression. I cried myself to sleep three times last week over a thesis that isn't due for four months. And at least you'll have a job. Nobody hires Europeanists. We can talk shop any time you want. I can be a mom and love history and you can be a doctor and love history. I'm still holding out for our tour of European battle fields some day.

Mindy said...

And I can be a mom who loves the piano and wishes for the love of history so I can talk shop with the rest of the family.

Anonymous said...

This is very interesting - Dan's Dad was very into mid-20th century history for a time as an undergrad.
As a "para-medical spouse", I have found a great deal of intellectual discovery in gaining a non-professional's understanding of medicine and physiology. I have often needed to "translate" medical into "small child" or "scared patient." Perhaps a different way to process the info, so a different spin. A different type of learning but still an intellectual challenge. I currently study ethnic knitting styles, with an emphsis on lace as an avocation.