1/4 life crisis: MD, grad school, or nursing for a better lifestyle

[PenguinMa]

I don't expect anyone will know the answers. But if you have time, I could use some advice and perspective on this manner. I'm in Canada. Dreamed as a Canadian born Filipino background to become a Flight Surgeon in the last week after failing by 1% to qualify for my pilot's license during the summer time just after my birthday at 16 y/o.

MD & unfortunate events

Now I'm 21. That dream is unrealistic after being abused by my boss who provided me a CHEM tutor job, 2 top volunteer awards, Scopolamine, and high marks in organic chemistry of 97 and 95 since my 2nd year till graduation. Now discarded. Don't worry I got counselling for healing from that.

Forced to graduate with no extra terms due to financial reasons with a ~77% average, ~3.18 GPA, MCAT I took 2 wks after wisdom tooth surgery (125, 120, 124, 122 = 491)

An option that still lingers in my mind is to go into the Canadian AF for flight nursing right after my paid Research award from May-August 2018. Especially with a RC Air Cadet background and an award for the Best President of a club at Uni. I don't know how further nurse applications in the CAF works yet, but I already passed the intelligence test with the CAF with flying colours to do either Flight Nurse or Doctor if I ever get accepted.

Grad school vs. Nursing school

This same supervisor for the Research award does not have funding. I also want to go into grad studies to either continue the research exp I had in a lab since 1st year 2nd term till now and do something with a supervisor that I know is mentally healthy and within the topics of my interest like my research award in tissue engineering or go into chemical physics and do some spectroscopy of nanoparticles related to analyzing amino-acids in gas phase, nanoclusters, and gold particles under IR spectroscopy and differential mobility spectroscopy (DMS).

However, the issue is the job market after a masters, let alone a BSc. So, I'm thinking my best bet is to go into the military as a Nurse Officer to get mah CHEQUE & full pension by 40 y/o and see if I want to do MD down the road there in the land of "the True North strong and Free" under staying silent of the abusive actions of the higher ranks. Sorry if this was too much.

Just being real here to find my next steps.

Thanks for anyone's time here.

[HoopDreams]

in the last week after failing by 1% to qualify for my pilot's license 

That dream is unrealistic after being abused by my boss

Forced to graduate with no extra terms due to financial reasons

do something with a supervisor that I know is mentally healthy

under staying silent of the abusive actions of the higher ranks

Hi PenguinMa,

I don't have all the answers but I am just a little older than you and I believe you seem bitter about many aspects of your life.
First, you are very young and you seem to be all over the place : research, pilot, army, medical school, nursing, etc.
Find a purpose but be realistic. Don't think too far.

From the quotes I pointed out, you seem to have encountered people that did not help you attain medical school.
Some were arrogant, some were unfair and some did not care about you.
The reality is that life is full of people that act this way.
Despite that, you need to take control of your life and your actions.
You need to stop feeling like a victim.
I am not saying that what might have happened to you is fair.
I don't think life is made to be fair, you just try your best to work and make it fair your own way.

I believe that you should take some time to reflect and decide what is it that you want out of life.
Meet nurses, doctors, pilots and people from the military. 
Assess your strengths and weaknesses.
And move on from whatever happened in the past.
Best of luck my friend.

[goleafsgochris]

I agree MD is out of the question unless you do another undergrad, and another MCAT.  It does not seem like you are up for that.  

Note that you mention maybe becoming a doctor after working as a nurse for many years.  Unfortunately, you will still need to do another undergrad, even at age 40--experience in nursing is not helpful for med school entry without the GPA, and you don't get a bonus for being older.  These requirements are likely to get harder with time.  

I don't have any input on the benefits of nursing vs grad school.  I would agree with the above poster that its best to move on from past events.

[Butterfly_]

9 hours ago, PenguinMa said:

Now I'm 21. 

The above two replies contain amazing advice and I’ll try not to rehash anything that has already been said.

Firstly, I must point out that you are only 21. That’s very young and your dreams are not over. They are only over when you, yourself, decide that they are. One of my favourite authors, Paulo Coelho, wrote in his book the Alchemist, “People are capable, at any time in their life, of doing what them dream of”. It’s really true. I’ve seen a 58 year old lady become an aerial dancer and a 40 year old teacher starting medical school. A more notable example,  KFC started his business when he was in his 60s and almost bankrupted. Anything is possible if you truly put your mind to it and truly want it to happen. I’d highly recommend you to read The Alchemist. It brought me back when I hit rock bottom in my life.

Secondly, I see that you have many interests but can’t seem to decide what is best for you. You also worry about things that are too far in the future. My advice for this is to find your true passion. What truly makes you tick? What do you love to do in your spare time? What do you enjoy studying? Is research truly your passion? Why do you want to nursing? What made you want to become a flight surgeon at 16? Ask yourself as many difficult questions as you can. When you are honest with yourself and can truly answer these questions, then you’ll find out what you need to do and where you need to go.

Thirdly, reset your mind. I understand that life has been difficult for you and you’ve undergone trauma. What differentiates the people who succeed and the people who fail is how they deal with obstacles.  Your mind is your most powerful asset. Many studies have shown how a positive mindset has helped people heal quicker from diseases, lower their stress, reach their weight loss goals and much more.  

Positivity breeds positivity

If you think you can, then you will. 

I hope you’ll find your path someday.

Remember there is no rush and everyone takes a different journey. As we grow, we may discover things about ourselves and decide to change trajectories and that’s also okay.

Remember to live life with happiness and passion.

Remember to never give up on your dreams.

Wishing you the all the best.

 

 

[PenguinMa]

14 hours ago, Butterfly_ said:

Remember to live life with happiness and passion.

 

23 hours ago, HoopDreams said:

Some were arrogant, some were unfair and some did not care about you.
The reality is that life is full of people that act this way.
Despite that, you need to take control of your life and your actions.

Thank you all. I'm grateful for all this great advice in my time of reflection.

I got more time to think about the logistics of this after final exams are done in 2 weeks.

I've already written 3 draft templates of books in a potential triology and a music album with the pilot name "Project: Quantum Pieces" to illustrate how the reality is that there's going to be moments in life that feel smashed into pieces. But like all you guys said, it can go either way with the right mindset. Where focus goes, energy flows.

As I continue to ruminate on each of these pieces, they can mean either negative things that I regret or positive things that help me become a stronger person to help others one day not suffer like I once did. I guess looking at painful experiences is kind of like noticing patterns in how some quantum particles can spin up, down, or both. That's how I'm going to look at all these experiences in life and my next steps. I'm going to be one with the flux qubits.  

I'm going to bring all this together with gold like the Japanese art of Kintsugi and believe in my radiance to go beyond!