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Caribou wrote

maybe its a bit cliche, but one thing ive heard people say that resonates is something like "youre going to get older anyways, would you rather be older and a doctor or older and not a doctor?"

As someone who's in a pretty similar spot as you, I've had to accept my life wont follow the "normal" timeline like other peoples, but what I think is important is always feeling like you are moving towards something.

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flabberghaster wrote

I second this. I also have somewhat of a similar story to you /u/neku. I spent most of my 20s doing basically nothing and being depressed, I spent like 6 years getting a 2 year degree at a community college, working part time in retail, and hating it.

I ended up at some point buckling down and getting my life on the track I wanted it to be, but by then I was almost 30 going to college. Not med school or anything but I was a lot older than most of my classmates.

I'm glad I did it. And I think if you want to be a doctor, you should go for it. Because like Caribou said what is the alternative? You will be that age and not being a doctor.

It's a very middle aged thing to say but age is just a number.

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oolong wrote

letting you know that you have so much persistence and strength in you and have done so much already and nothing about those 7 years inside or previous failures says that you will fail in the future. you're making progress towards the type of person you want to be and that is tremendous. i think the future can be really beautiful even if you can't see it now. it is super cool that we can always start over as long as we live.

there are also a lot of research-related jobs in medicine that contribute to improving other people's lives if you decide doctoring is not for you.

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twovests wrote

I know nothing about going to grad school, so I can't gauge where you are on the "fucking insane" meter.

By "fucking insane", do you mean "Wildly nontraditional but completely doable"? Do you mean "apparently unviable, crazy to attempt"? Etc. I can't say anything about how viable this is. I'm around the same age and I've been thinking of things in terms of: Will I regret this decision in 5, 10, 20, 30 years? Will I wish I made a different decision? So, I think the answer to "is this insane?" would be a useful one, and I think this is a place where finding some sort of mentor person, even if it's a short meeting, would be wise.

You won't be surprised to know that my vote is in the "follow your dreams" camp. Maybe you're maybe too old now, but in a decade or two you'll be definitely too old, right? Wouldn't you rather taste this fig before it expires?

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