My life, my way

Ever since I was a little girl I had 2 goals in life:

My first goal (and the one that has taken up most of my life at this point) was to become a doctor.  At 8 years old, when my friends wanted to be models/actresses/princesses, I wanted to be a doctor.  Coming from a small town where college was more of an pipe dream than a common place occurrence, I was told from the start it would be near impossible.  My parents encouraged me to pursue my dream, but told me quite honestly I would need scholarships to pay for college and medical school.  They couldn't pay for it for me.  So I worked hard in elementary school to get into the right public high school, then worked hard in high school to get a scholarship to the right college, and then worked even harder in college to get into medical school.  And now, I'm a month away from seeing the completion of this goal.  I've completed all the coursework, I've completed all the exams, and I've been accepted to residency.  All I need is to show up for the ceremony and I will be a doctor.

My second goal was to become a mother.  I always knew I would have children one day, it was not an option for me to imagine my life otherwise.  Then, 3 years ago I found out I was quite unexpectedly pregnant.  I was just starting my 3rd year of medical school and pregnancy/parenthood was not something I thought I was quite ready for yet.  Yes, I was married already.  Yes, we wanted children.  But medical school and baby did not seem like compatible ideas to me.  However, the second I saw the second blue line on the home pregnancy test, I knew I was in love already with someone I had never met.  Now, that second blue line is a two year old boy with the cutest smile on the planet.  Sometimes I think he is more monkey than little boy, but I love him for it.

How I survived 2 years of medical school as a new mother I will never really know.  I always meant to journal it or record it somehow, but I never found the time.  To me, it was just my life being lived in the only way I knew how.

I stand now on the cusp of graduation and seeing the completion of my life goals: a medical degree and motherhood.  In 3 months, I begin my residency and my career as a psychiatrist.  This time I plan on finding the time to record how I live my life in my way so when people ask how I find the time to raise a young child and do residency, I might have more of an answer.