old med student wrote:
I am a 35-year-old third year med student, so I was pretty much in your exact position just a few years ago. For what it's worth, I don't regret my decision to go to med school at all. It's hard work, but it's also very rewarding and I feel like my career is headed in the right direction in a way that I never did before med school.
In general, I find that older students are less likely to regret going to med school because we have more clarity regarding our life/career goals. You've had a lot of time to think about this and explore alternative options. My advice would be to trust your gut if you really think medicine is what you want at this point. The 22-year-old who went into medicine because he is "good at science and wants to help people" has a way greater risk of ultimately deciding that med school was a mistake than the 33-year-old who decided on medicine after years of life experience.
A mistake people make is to view medical training as wasted years. I hear this all the time. "I'm giving up 7+ years of my life for med school and residency." I can confirm that I am still living (and very much enjoying) life. Life is a journey, not a destination, and med school/residency is just another part of the journey. Sure, it will be a while until you are an attending, but the time in the interim is only wasted if that's how you choose to view it.
totally--the life experiences that you had being a older at the outset of medical school give you a big leg up; I started med school in 1997 at 24, but I had classmates starting at 20 or 21 and some "fell into med" and didn't have a good experience. You definitely have more certainty about what you want to do as you age and are generally able to handle some of the stressors of medical school and residency better with past experiences; I spent 6 years for both med school and residency and it was some of the best years of my life...