Good things about medicine:
It's pretty interesting; I'm not sure if practicing medicine would be as interesting as learning it, I'm told that a lot of people once they become specialists became frustrated by the monotony of seeing the same cases day in day out. I'm not sure this is that much of a problem, after all if it ever becomes absolutely mind numbingly painful there's always a chance to change specialty, or go into academia, or become political and join the AMA or something. Besides most colleges encourage Life Long Learning now anyway, so I'm pretty sure I'm set in this regard.
You get to talk to people; depending on the specialty you keep some patients for life, I think this really just comes down to me liking to be able to see the results of my individual work. I'd hate to do a job where I worked in aggregate, bumping sales of a retail giant by an inexorably small percentage, or being a police officer an keeping crime down in an abstract manner day by day. That's not for me I like to see the results of my work in front of me, concrete.
Safe employment; people are always going to get sick, so there'll always be a demand for doctors. From what I can see of history the more simple diseases we cure the more complex ones people die of, medicine is getting more complex and people are living longer, being a doctor means having an (admittedly very good) source of income for life.
Altruism and ego stroking; anyone ever seen the episode of scrubs where JD takes a 60yo man (patient) to his high school reunion when everyone has trophy wives and says "yeah, he's alive because of me". That guy is my hero.
Crises are common: I love it when the proverbial hits the fan and love being stressed, at least for now, we'll see how I feel in 20 years.
Bad things about Medicine:
It's a time sink: It already costs me so many social engagements because I have to study etc etc. And it's not as though most doctors work a 40 hour week now is it.
Stuff up and people could die: This one's pretty self explanatory
So what kind of specialty do I want?
I want a specialty that:
- Is interesting and has a massive amount of content to know, preferably where new knowledge is still coming out
- Lets me see the results of my work
- Has good job security
- Makes me feel like I'm doing something good
- Is prone to crisis
- Doesn't lead to someone dying if I make 1 mistake
I'd say we are going through the same thing. I too, am in my 2nd year and the idea of a medical career used to sound too distant for me to be thinking of it in the present. But I find that looking forward a bit encourages me to set short term goals for myself. It makes me more interested in what I am learning as a 2nd year (even though I find it rather dull at times).