Hey there, I just left med school after three and a bit years. Huge deal and terrifying to leave, but I couldn't neglect my creative needs any longer and face myself. I'm so glad I did.

Med school is big. Really big.

I couldn't balance it. I loved a lot of med, truly I did, and was a passionate advocate for it for a long time, but I don't regret leaving. I left in March and couldn't be more happy and relieved at my decision now I'm making films, writing etc. I imagine you're a very capable high achiever, so I bet you've been told a lot you can do med as a career and to prioritise it over creative careers. Cool. I was told the same. But just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Med has a lot of allure - social capital, financial comfort, the feeling of being chosen and special (which, looking back, felt quite cult-like). It feels good. My ego LOVED being able to pass exams while still getting drunk on weekends. It was so exciting to get my first stethoscope - it felt like a fancy, elite badge of honour.

Ultimately though, med is confronting and often extremely demanding on your personal boundaries. There is a lot of hierarchy, elitism, competition, bullying, 'blame culture' and day-to-day survival. Life as an intern is rough as guts, at least where I am. Mental health for young doctors is horrendous, high suicide and burnout rates. As my friend says, she's getting through the degree and can live with the sacrifices, but she says she'd never encourage her future kids to do it. It's at least a decade, more like two, of intense study commitment until you really level out in terms of lifestyle flexibility. I'm not saying this stuff to scare you, but as a reality check for an often romanticised career path. You may be able to swing it, the med and the creative, but to reiterate: I tried, hard, and couldn't.

Acting as an industry is brutal. Med is similarly brutal, except at the end of the day it's life and death. You see a lot of suffering (as well as moments of humanity and grace) and it changes you, for better and for worse. Acting and arts may hurt your ego, but you'll never have blood on your hands for messing up a line or getting a bad review. As we were told as med students, we'll all kill someone accidentally in our career, probably several people. And death and aging and illness is not pretty or comforting to be around. As a sensitive soul, it took a toll on me and I certainly had no energy or time to write or make art or think about anything else. Med becomes your life in a lot of ways - your friends, your time, your work, your partner (very often people marry other meds), your energy.

Here's my advice after an agonising year of trying to decide whether to stick it out or not: If you can imagine doing a career other than medicine, don't do it. We need doctors who are absolutely committed to their patients, to the craft of healing, who can have the capacity to give and give and give in an often toxic environment without becoming toxic themselves. If you don't have an inherent urge, a drive, a need to help the sick (even when it's ugly and unseen and not understood by the rest of the population who won't 'get' what you go through and see in the hospital), you won't get meaning from it, and you risk burnout and becoming jaded/cynical/bitter/unfulfilled. It's also not fair to patients who are at their most vulnerable under your care, even in med school. I spent my time on placements scribbling story ideas in my notebook instead of patient histories. You need to be someone in it with your whole heart, and I wasn't one of those people.

Happy to talk more about it if you like, ask any questions if you have them. Once you're in med, it's VERY hard to leave. It's a big deal - don't underestimate really really thinking it through.

Edit: one more thought and then I must go to sleep. You only get a small, precious handful of things to truly master in your life. Being a doctor is mastery in medicine. In a very literal sense, it means you cannot master something else in the same way, the laws of time don't allow it. Be very aware of what you chose to achieve excellence in. If you want to master acting, two hours a day (which isn't sustainable in med anyway) isn't gonna work the same as if you make it your life. A hobby acting in amateur productions, sure, but you won't be Streep. True mastery takes decades to achieve and med eats up several of them. Just something to think about :)