I’m Pre-Med even though my parents told me it would be too hard

Since I was a nerdy 9-year-old kid watching season 1 of Grey’s Anatomy with my mom, I’ve known I’ve wanted to be a doctor. I have always loved science, and I even used to play computer games that taught me Anatomy and Biology. During high school, I was taking AP science classes, had a lab internship, and told everyone I met that I wanted to be a doctor, and maybe even a surgeon. Cristina Yang has been, and always will be, my biggest inspiration.

As a senior, I was applying to colleges, and I was trying to decide what I wanted to study. My parents wanted me to do something ‘creative’ because they’ve always said that I did best in those areas, which is true. My best grades in school were in art, writing and English. I’ve always liked writing and art, don’t get me wrong, but what interested me most wasn’t those subjects. I applied to almost every school as a Biology major. I also submitted my AP Art portfolio to every school. I didn’t really need to for what I wanted to study, but I didn’t want my hard work to go to waste.

Though deep down I knew I wanted to be a doctor, my parents and other adults had attempted to convince me that I shouldn’t study as a pre-med student or pursue medical school because “it would be too much work,” and “the MCAT is so hard.” They said things like, “its just so high pressure and you won’t be able to handle it.”  They said that “I have a creative mind not a medical one,” and that I should pursue my artistic talents.

“You’ll never get into medical school,” they said.

A few weeks after applying to UConn, I got an email from the head of the art department saying that my art portfolio was in the top 1% of applicants. I forwarded the email to my parents, and soon they convinced me to change the program of study I’d applied for. My college counselor and I called the school and changed my application from Biology to Visual Arts. They ended up giving me a $2,000 per semester academic scholarship. I thought that because someone had told me I was very good at art, that’s what I should study. I didn’t know then that what you’re best at doesn’t have to be what you pursue.

In the fall, I started at UConn as an art major. I was enrolled in Drawing I, Freshman English, and some other first semester art classes. I regretted my decision to study art within the first 3 minutes of my first art class. I was literally miserable.

What was supposed to be “low pressure” and “good for me to study because I am creative” turned out to be awful. I never wanted to “study” (aka do 47 drawings that the art teacher probably wouldn’t like anyway), and I was completely unmotivated to do well in school. The only class I liked was Art Philosophy, and it actually had nothing to do with art.

I ended up dropping most of my art classes. My parents were mad at me because they thought I wasn’t taking school seriously, but I just longed to be studying something else. I actually had really good grades (I got a 4.0 that semester), but I hated every moment of every class.

As soon as I could, I switched my major to Biology and started a Pre-Med plan of study. I decided not to listen to what my parents or counselors had to say. I told them that I didn’t care in the slightest what they thought I should be studying. I said that I didn’t care what they thought about the MCAT being hard, or the classes, or how hard it was going to be to get into medical school. I told them I would rather do nothing at all than not study what I am truly interested in. I got the whole ‘but it’s so hard, you’ll be so stressed’ speech. My dad was Pre-Med in college before he decided it was too hard, and he assumed I wouldn’t be able to do it either. It turns out that switching my major was the best decision I’ve ever made.

Though I don’t have as good grades in my classes as I would majoring in something else, and though I have to spend a ton of time studying for extremely difficult classes, I would never want to be studying anything else. I find my classes interesting, and my education in Biology allowed me to have an internship at a leading biotechnology company working in a cancer research lab. During the school year I work in an environmental science research lab, and this summer I started working for a doctor at a surgery center and family practice.

Since I’ve switched to Biology, I’ve actually changed my major twice. First I switched to Physiology and Neurobiology, but I am now studying Molecular and Cell Biology, and mainly taking classes centering around Genomics and Genetic Engineering, still on a pre-med track. I’ve found that the more classes I take, the more I realize exactly what I want to do.

I still get speeches from people about how I should switch to something easier, and how it would be ‘a lot more fun to have an easier major in college.’ While that may be true, I’d rather be able to look back on my life and say that I studied something difficult because I was determined to do so; and that I didn’t give up on myself because of what people said.

Though I’ve taken Genetics, Biology of the Brain, Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry just to name a few, the most important thing I’ve learned in college is much bigger than any reaction, equation, or code. I’ve learned that you don’t need your parents’ approvals or anyone else’s to study what you’re interested in; even if you’re not amazing at it.