Why Do You Wanna Be When You Grow Up?

Nope, the title of the post isn't a typo. It's a contrast between two things, as you'll see.

I paid my pediatrician a visit a few days ago because I needed her to sign off on some immunizations for UIC. She's one of the nicest docs I've met, and didn't mind us walking in. My mom decided to come along because she hadn't seen her in a few years.

Anyway, once all the immunization stuff gets signed, my mom and the doc start talking about their kids. I get mentioned as going to UIC as an incoming M1. The peds doc mentions how her oldest kid is also just starting med school, after getting her master's from Dartmouth. I think to myself that that's pretty impressive. But the next comment kinda took me by surprise.

The peds doc then says "it's about time that [my oldest] got to med school; I hope [my next oldest] follows her." And she said it in a snippy, non-joking manner. I should note at this point that the MD is Pakistani. I guess I've always known about the stereotype of Asians and Middle East cultures pushing, almost forcing, their kids into certain careers. But I've never seen it first hand.

IMO, given one's circumstances, you should do what you want to and what makes you happy. If that means going into medicine, great. If that means working as a flight attendant, great. If you want a job that's all about the money, so be it. If you're wanting more humanitarian work, good deal. There are different reasons and appeals which draw people to various careers. Either way, I don't think kids should be forced into something just to meet their parents' expectations. After all, it's the kids that have to wake up every day and actually live out that career.

My background? Yeah, I'm Asian and my parents are first generation immigrants. Also, my father's a physician, and my mother used to work as an RN. But, they've never forced any particular career on me, especially not health care. I got surprisingly little exposure to the health field growing up: neither ever brought work home with them or talked about it in front of me. My parents always supported whatever I was trying to do. So, I gradually got interested in medicine mostly on my own. But once my parents saw I was seriously interested in health care, then they started to talk more about what they'd experienced. So are my parents happy I'm going into medicine? Yes. But only because they can tell that it's what *I* want to do and because it was my choice, not theirs.

So for me, it's kinda hard to understand how kids can be forced into a career by their parents. Even harder is comprehending that that's just how things work. Yeah, there's obviously a culture difference, but still. I don't think I would be cool with that type of environment. I'm not saying one culture is better than another, but I just find it hard to relate to that sort of upbringing.