Medic - the Best or the Worst?

When I first went for my scholarship interview in 2006 for a degree in medicine, I'd already expected the must asked question for medic applicants - why do you want to be a doctor?
Most people would simply answer because I want to help others but is this true? Because doctor isn't the only job in the world where you can help others, engineers can help build better machines, architects can build better buildings and even bakers can bake better cakes. So why would people want to take up this horrifying course (found out later after only one semester) and spend their lifetime on others and sacrificing their own?

I can't really say that we medic students take up this course for the bankroll because to be honest the salary is totally not worth it. I mean after five to six years of extensive studies (to the point where we ourselves might need a brain surgery), we'll have the lowest salary among our friends who graduated one to two years earlier than us. Plus if you look at the Forbes' list of the richest men in the world, you can only find about a couple of doctors who are in their 90's sitting at the bottom of the list. I don't deny the payment is pretty satisfying once you are a specialist, but in order to get there you have to spend another three to five years of your life studying while others are enjoying their life with their well paid job.

And I doubt the reason why we took up this course is because we love to study. Because let's face it, no matter how nerdy a person might be, you don't want to have books as tall as you are to memorize and having the thoughts that if you missed a single line in those books, you might caused a man's life. Although we learn a lot about health, we medic students are the most ignorant about our own health. We are very prone to gastric, insomnia, appendix, food poisoning and even psychiatry problems due to our studies.

Let's go back to the first reason about helping others. I know that it's noble to want to help others but would you really choose to help others when your own life needs help in fixing it. Of all the professions in the world doctors are one that's very likely to have a marriage crisis. And we medic students don't get to have fun often unless you consider going to classes and group discussion as fun.

So, after listing out so many cons in the life of a medic student, why did we still took up this course? Each one of us has their very own opinion (which might include the reasons I listed above) but my answer is pretty simple. It's because I was inspired. I was inspired by my family, my friends and even the society to take up this course and make it my future career. I guess when you are inspired, you'll have the passion to continue a life that others might not even want to cross and start to look at things differently and enjoy every bit of it.