Reflections - On whether I am on the right path in life.

I have spent the past 3 months working with a particular resident at my hospital. Some times when you walk around the hospital it is like walking in a Marcs/Country Road/CUE showroom. Many of our doctors come from affluent backgrounds - whose fathers, and sometimes mothers are doctors, university chancellors, business-people, lawyers, politicians. I often wonder if they have ever had difficulties in life. If they know what it means to earn your keep, and to actually have to work for their 'achievements'. Many of them live at home, or in homes paid for by their wealthy and protective parents. Their biggest problems is probably divorce between those parents. They travel extensively, with numerous photos of their exotic exploits posted onto Facebook. They are athletic, intelligent and beautiful. They will often go on to marry other wealthy individuals, usually surgeons, cardiologists, lawyers. They have massive impractical heirlooms on their ring fingers. They are entitled. They will express their anger when their workload is heavy and they will expect you to share it with them, although you have previously paid your dues. They will throw you under a bus because they think their 'right' to an easy life has been infringed upon, and it makes them angry. Junior medical doctors these days are an impetuous lot, quick to anger, ready to answer back.

When I entered medicine, I did not think I would be joining the ranks of such wealthy, self-serving, high-'achieving' individuals. I had romantic notions of an apprenticeship, where you learn how to assess, diagnose and treat your patients, from senior clinicians. I thought I would become an expert on medical diseases, and that I would spend some time with patients, and some time with my books and research papers.

I look around me and people seem happy with the current state of affairs. It makes me wonder if the problem lies with me. But this is not what I intended. I wonder if that is to come, or if I should count my losses and find another path. As easy as life in Australia can be, I wonder if Australia is not the place for me.