hard work vs intelligence

Hi, shadowmask. First of all, I’m glad that you have such a lofty ambition and that you have the drive to accomplish it. Anyway, I once wanted to become a physician as well. Even wanted to become a neurosurgeon at one point. That’s why I pursued what I thought was a good pre-med course. I am more of a hard worker than naturally gifted. That being said, I toiled for 8 years to finish my college degree and get my professional license but now I’ve spent too much time and my parents have no more funds for me to be able to enter medschool. And after all that, I find that aside from not excelling at it, I don’t like my profession at all. Now I’m stuck, unemployed, lost and depressed. Having this experience, I am inclined to share some thoughts with you. I think the most important thing to consider is that do you truly want to do this for all the days of your life because that’s what it will ultimately lead to. I suggest researching thoroughly about the lifestyle, salary, working hours etc of a Surgical PA and ask yourself if you would be happy in performing this kind of work. Will you be able to literally wake up eager and wanting to go and perform your job? Once you have determined this look at and research on the kind of textbooks, papers you need to get through, so you will have an idea if you will be able to handle the workload. I cannot stress enough how physically, mentally and emotionally demanding (and up to a point draining) working or studying in the medical field is. It has got to be something you are in love with since it will take up 99% of your time sometimes 100%. You’ll barley get any sleep. This happened to me since I’m not that especially intelligent, I had to work twice even thrice that of my peers. And there are a lot of exams, apart from the ones in school of course there are Medical Board Exams etc. You might want to research on that too. Talking to an actual Surgical PA can also help since that person will be able to give you the whole picture, what happens in reality and from there at least you’ll have an idea, you’ll be able to assess if this career path is for you. I urge you to prepare as much as you can. Learn about this field as much as you can so you can determine if it’s right for you. I tell you all this because I want you to make the right choice regarding your career because wrong decisions (like mine) can really cause heartache, confusion and ultimately sadness which I want to spare you from. If you have anymore questions or clarifications, I’m on here quite a lot so…Thanks for reading. Hope I helped.