When I grow up...

Here are (in no particular order) the things that I am thinking of being when I grow up.

*General pediatrician - I like kids. They are fun to care for.
*Pediatric palliative care doctor - I like kids, families, comfort care, and counseling. Also, I have an "in" at one of the fellowship sites.
*Palliative care doc - this is the non-pediatric form. I like it for pretty much the same reasons as the pediatric form.
*Physical medicine and rehab - helping people regain function is awesome.
*Child psychiatry - this is actually the thing that set me on this long, circuitous path in the first place; I took general psych when I was 16 years old, loved it, wanted to do more and go to medical school, and very shortly thereafter convinced myself that I wasn't smart enough to do so. Then, five years later, I took a neuroscience course that made me realize that although I might not be smart enough, I am determined enough.
*Neurology - I like brains. They're fun. I like puzzles. They're fun.

Basically, I like the notion of comfort in medicine. This is what I get from this. With the exception of just being a general pediatrician, all of these options would require either a 3 year residency and a fellowship (usually 1-2 years) or a 4 year residency (PM&R, combined peds-psych, combined peds-internal meds) or both.

Yikes.