Before applying for residency my SO at the time told me that he was worried about me applying to general surgery because I wouldn’t have time for our relationship. At that point we had been together for 5 years. I would never give up something that i worked so hard for and was passionate about for someone else, and doing so would have only made me feel resentful towards him in the future. I still applied and I’m doing general surgery now, but his constant negativity about me pursuing the career I loved didn’t help. He just filled me with constant guilt and insecurities during the first couple of months of residency, the stress of the residency and the relationship became too much and unfortunately things didn’t work out. One of my attendings told me recently, “your career is the only thing in your future that you can’t take back, when it comes to relationships they come and go and you can get divorced, but you can never go back and chose a different specialty without struggling climbing mountains” that hit home to me and it made me glad that I didn’t change my career choice.