Any reason why you chose to study medicine?
I mean, some people do it because they're amazed by the human body and some people because they love helping humans and I want to hear your reasons

It was a pretty pondered decision, honestly.

Most of all, I wanted to pick something that would make me want to get up in the morning everyday for the rest of my life.
As childish as that sounds, I suppose that sums up what most people want.

It had to be something where I could make a impact.
Plus, it had to be something where I could help people, because that's kind of the only impact that actually matters.
The "love helping humans" closes to being a cliché but fortunately still remains true to some degree for all the medical students I have met.

There are a lot of paths I could have followed based on those premises though.
A few engineering degrees or medicine were the most flagrant ones since I've always loved natural sciences.


Eventually it came down to:
-pursuing a degree HEAVILY based around Chemistry, because a chain of events lead me to delve a bit deeper into that area and being particularly interested in it.
I eventually dropped that idea because Portugal doesn't have a good set of options in that area.

-pursuing a degree in Aerospace Engineering, because of how incredibly fascinating and cool it all seems.
Hardcore physics and maths are far from being the high points of my skill-set though.

-pursuing a degree in Biomedical Engineering. It has physics and maths to a point I believe I can handle. It has a strong influence of Chemistry and Biology. Honestly it sounded remarkably interesting but then the "what if I don't want to be closed in a lab/office for the rest of my life?" kicked in.

-pursuing a degree in Medicine. It's a perfect match for my areas of interest in science. It's the most straight-forward path to help people and make an impact. BUT the thing that did it for me was how versatile it is.



You can be a general practitioner (or so I think that's the english term) and have a quiet life working in different community health centers and clinics, with not that many working hours and being able to spend more time with the future family.

You can be a surgeon and have a total different experience, while working at the hospital and enduring painful working hours.

You can be something like an Ophthalmologist and live a mix of both things. Well I can't, because I'll never have the necessary grade on the final exam, but it kind of sort of is an option???

You can be a researcher and explore the pleasure of studying your favorite subject above and beyond.
Maybe even discovering something cool along the way with the potential to help millions of people at a time instead of the case-by-case routine regular doctors do. (Again a pretty childish idea but one worth chasing, in my opinion)

AND you can even try bouncing between being a researcher and some kind of "regular" doctor, which doesn't seem to work all that well based on the people I've met that do it, but it's actually the path I wanted (and still want) the most to venture through.



As a side note, at some point I did consider some sort of Economics degree though, because what if my future self finally figures out that money is all he wants and all that matters because if everything is so ephemerous why not acquire currency and go full on hedonistic ideals???
Medicine can lead to a nice paycheck so I'm somewhat covered if I ever turn into that guy (but he's going to be pretty pissed with the working hours so fuck that guy anyway)



TL;DR Overall, Medicine:
-covers a lot of different lifestyles that I highly consider that I might be interested in, and all of them related to helping people/making an impact
-is based around the subjects I want to study the most
-is based around subjects that match my skill-set
-did I mention how versatile it is??? because how the hell can I trust a dumb and naive 18 year old (now 20 but still as dumb and naive) to decide what I'm going to do for the rest of my life and with one choice put me on the tracks to a life that I might not like later


Funny how I actually considered my decision to be pretty well pondered when I started writing this.
I guess it's blatantly obvious that the portuguese system doesn't involve interviews while trying to access the course/university you want, or else I would be able to give you an answer so thought out and rehearsed I'd copy+paste it here the moment I read the question.

that was a great read, thank you!

How are you in your second year of Medicine at only 20? :O
Did you jump through highscool? Or is there something different about the Portuguese system?

Glad you enjoyed it!
It was fun to write as well, specially since I wasn't so sure of the answer at the start.


Depends on which system you're comparing it to, I guess.

At 6 years old you get into 1st grade.
At 10 years old you get into the 5th grade.
At 12 you get into the 7th grade.


At 15 you get into the 10th grade, which corresponds to the start of highschool, I think, since it's the beginning of the so called secondary education.
Here you get to pick between a Science and Technology path, an Economics path, an Arts one and a Social Sciences one.
I chose the Science and Technology one, and so went through the 3 years of highschool with subjects like Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, etc.

So at 18 I finished highschool like most students do, and applied for Medicine around August of that same year.
Around September I got accepted and so I started the course later that month, while still being 18.

Finished the 1st year with 19 years old, and now I finished the 2nd year with 20 years old.
Medicine is divided into pre-clinical years (the first 3) and clinal years (the last 3).

That's the standard model around here. I never skipped or fell behind a year.

What's the difference from your country, William?

Hmm, here it's pretty much the same till the university/Medicine path. For Medicine, you go through 3 years of pre-med (usually a Biology B.S) ..then you do your MCAT. If you get accepted, then you go through 4 years of General Medicine. After that, 2 or 3 years for specialization.

That sounds closer to the American system (or was it the British?), or so I guess since I don't know exactly how it works, but it'd be cool if hanz0 mysteriously hopped in to explain it.

That also helps me make sense of this article my girlfriend sent me today (http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/0...pital-in-july/) where the writer talks about "four years of medical school under my belt, an M.D. after my name".

Here you get the M.D. after the 6 years that comprise the course, but you also start sooner since instead of the pre-med years you get the pre-clinical ones.

As for the specializations they range from 4(?) years if you're going for "General and Familiar Medicine" (which I believe is kind of the general practitioner if I wouldn't translate it literally), to 6-7(?) years for example Plastic Surgery.
Also, they start after you finish the 6 years of the course if that wasn't clear.

If you want my opinion on this system, I obviously prefer the fact that you don't have to risk 3 years doing a pre-med course, like the Biology B.S you mentioned, just to find yourself possibly rejected after that.

The pre-clinical years here have some subjects that should be somewhat similar to a Biology B.S, like Molecular and Cellular Biology, Biochemistry or Histology, but you also get right from the start subjects that are more "Medicine-specific" like Anatomy and Physiology.
I can actually post the subjects I took so far if you're extra curious.

Overall I can't say for sure how good this system is compared to others.
You've got indicators like link for the country's health system, and link for university rankings.
Take them for what they're worth.

Wow, I heard from friends that medicine is really hard to even be accepted to. One of my very smart friend tried to apply for a degree but was rejected because of the interview. Much respect Oblivion, wish you all the best.

http://speedy.sh/3vDfz/gravityhacks8.rpl

help me oh mighty god Oblivion

I'm making a gravity hacked replay, I followed your instructions exactly, but at frame 825 when I change the gravity the first time, Uke glitches back and almost resets. I don't understand why and I really want this replay to look good.

I know you may be dead, but I need to ask you something

Is there anyway in which we could see if somebody tampered with a replay file in the notepad.