Decisions

Today I received offers of admission to three medical schools: UBC, University of Toronto, and Queen’s.  I was placed on the wait list for the University of Calgary, and I have yet to hear from the University of Alberta.  I have already provisionally accepted an offer from Memorial University.  My sense of satisfaction from receiving such good news after the long wait was surprisingly fleeting.  Immediately I began to ponder the question of where to spend the next four years of my life.  Big decisions have always been stressful for me.  I realize that having a choice is way better than not having a choice, yet I often have difficulty deciding what I truly want and what is the most important for me.  I know that there are many people who were extremely disappointed today who would be more than a little envious of my predicament.  Nonetheless, I won’t be able to relax until I’ve made a decision that I feel confident is the best for me.

Lifestyle is important to me.  Today I’m sporting a sunburn because I was riding up at Whistler yesterday.  I am the fittest I have ever been because it is so easy to stay physically active year-round.  I enjoy the simple pleasures Vancouver has to offer such as running along Spanish Banks or riding my bike through the endowment lands.  I am a Vancouverite at heart.  I love golfing, snowboarding, and all-you-can-eat sushi.  Vancouver is paradise on earth.  I find it difficult to imagine living anywhere else.  Regardless of where I choose to go to medical school, I believe that one day I will return to Vancouver to live and practice medicine.

I am also ambitious and career-orientated.  The University of Toronto is one of the top 10 medical schoools in the world.  Right now I believe that I want to be a neurologist, although I realize that this goal may change as I go through my rotations in medical school.  Matching to neurology is competitive.  There may be more opportunities to pursue neurology at the University of Toronto.  The location of the University of Toronto campus in the heart of the city would also be a novel urban experience for me, and would fit well with my love of eating out, going to shows, going to pubs & clubs, etc. 

It seems like every move I make is to a larger city.  I grew up in Lethbridge (population 70,000), moved to Calgary to start my graduate degree (population 1,000,000), and of course now I’m living in Vancouver (population 1,500,0000).  Is the next move going to be to a city of over 4,000,000 people?  The cultural and professional opportunities of Toronto may to too much to turn down.

This is going to be a tough decision, which will dramatically affect my life in the near and long-term.  The decision could even get harder if I were to receive and offer from the University of Calgary.  The University of Calgary medical program is only 3 years (as opposed to 4 years at every other school).  The shorter program is very appealing to an old man like myself who is weary of school after a decade of attending university.

Right now the decision is between UBC and the University of Toronto.  I have approximately one week to decide.

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