I’m a Doctor because I Have No Interest in Airplanes
The first time that I remember intentionally thinking about what I was going to be when I grew up was in seventh or eighth grade. Every student at my school in that grade was assigned to take this aptitude test that was supposed to tell us what future career(s) we might want to consider. After taking the test, I read the results: “Air traffic controller or physician.” Having no interest at all in airplanes, I wondered why the test would have even come up with that suggestion as a possibility, and instantly crossed it off my list. Who knows, maybe I would have loved that also, but oh well … that possibility was nipped in the bud!
Fast-forward to high school…
As I took more science classes and found opportunities to volunteer in health care related settings, my interest in medicine was reinforced, because I found myself drawn to learning about how the human body worked, what goes wrong to cause disease, and how science can be harnessed to return the body back to a healthy state. However, when it came down to picking a college major, I was advised to pick a major that could get me hired right out of college just in case I changed my mind about going into medicine. After looking into which of these more practical majors had degree requirements that overlapped with medical school prerequisites, I eventually chose to major in chemical engineering, which is why I ended up with a B.S. in chemical engineering as the next step on my way to med school.
I don’t regret having gotten my engineering degree. It did help train me to visualize problems more schematically in order to solve them, but it still didn’t draw me as much as medicine did. I think what I was looking for was the challenge of trying to understand, in a systematic way, the interwoven intricacies of this crazy awesome cool system known as the human body, and get the chance to also interact with that actual person and teach/empower them with that knowledge. The med school application process, though, was rather disheartening as I got rejection letter after rejection letter. But I did eventually get two acceptances (one a little later on from off the wait list, actually!) and was therefore able to continue to pursue my dream… with the help of the United States Air Force to pay for the crazy cost! As part of that agreement, my pediatrics residency after med school was as an active duty soldier, and I served six more years after residency as an Air Force pediatrician before settling in San Antonio and opening up a private practice as a civilian.
Why pediatrics?
Maybe it was because of my sweet old pediatrician that I had growing up. Maybe it’s also because I’m a kid at heart who just might enjoy Disney and animated Pixar movies a little more than someone who is “researching how to best relate to my patients (wink, wink).” Maybe it’s because part of the draw of medicine is teaching, and it’s so rewarding to be able to teach kids about how to understand science to optimize their own health. And yeah, there’s totally a part of me that gets a kick out of parents telling me that their kids go home and pretend to be “Dr. Cevey” with their toys. My sister and brother-in-law may make the big bucks as radiation oncologists, but I’m sure their patients don’t go home and pretend to be them! Makes me feel like I’m the superhero I used to pretend to be growing up!
