I wonder... what if...

Sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision in life... you know I have always wondered what is the right thing that decides a person's choice of his career! Is it the choice of your parents, your own interest/passion, your aptitude, your circumstances, practical issues, absence/presence of good opportunities, or is it just destiny... or a combination of all these? Hmmm..... I have pondered over this quite a lot...

Well, I do not know about others, but I guess there were a variety of reasons for me to take up the career I have chosen! Back home in India, the usual career path for anyone is either to become "an engineer" or "a doctor". My parents have never forced their decisions on me, though they have always been full of "suggestions". I am sure they wanted me to be either of these, but they would never have forced me to take up one of them, in case I really did not want to do that! I, being an "ideal" son you may say ;) took up one of them, of course!

Ever since I was a kid, I always dreamed of being a doctor. I imagined that I would some day be able to save someone's life; someone would think of me in respect... well, basically I always thought I would be a doctor; in fact, I had even gone to the extent of "choosing" my "specialisation" as cardiology or gynecology..... :) So my passion had always been to become a "medical doctor" (you see, I could still do my PhD and become a so called "doctor"! hahaha... I do not think I will be doing that now anyway)

As far as my aptitude goes, I guess I was quite a decent student in school. My family placed a lot of importance on education and I was interested in it as well... My favorite subjects as I grew up were Mathematics, Chemistry and Zoology (I guess medicine would be a better term)... a strange combination - don't you think? Most of my friends who took up medicine hated mathematics or they found it difficult. And most of my fellow engineers hated anything to do with biology! I was interested in both... I had a decent ability to solve problems in geometry/trigonometry/calculus and loved zoology though I was not that good at drawing the figures... I guess most of the doctors do not have a good handwriting or drawing abilities anyway ;) or is it just that they want to write illegibly? I do not know!

Circumstances/practical issues? Well... I guess I was thinking about my long term plans when I had to make a decision regarding my career. Till my tenth grade, I always dreamed of being a doctor... it was then that I realised that if I was to be a doctor, it would take me 5.5 years to complete the Bachelor's degree, followed by maybe 2-3 years of Master's and maybe more specialisation to follow. Also, I heard from people that just academic merit would not ensure a seat in the Master's program. Settling down as a doctor in India is much harder as compared to being a doctor in the US. If I were to be an engineer, I could finish my bachelor's in 4 years, Master's within 2 years in the US and have a decent job back home in India. These were the issues I had to think about! We were financially stable but I do not think we were so well off that I could just not worry about stuff... I know my parents would have loved me to take up medicine if I was interested in that! So, it was just left to me to decide!

The other factor I talked about is the presence/absence of opportunities. Well, I almost decided that I would be a software engineer by the time I was in my eleventh grade. But I never neglected biology - I don't know why but I just could not bring myself not to study biology! Maybe I had to prove to myself, or others, I do not know, that I had a choice of taking up the career of my choice. After my twelfth grade, I had a good score in both the engineering as well as the medical streams - the final moment of decision came! And I chose as I had decided - A Software Engineer in a good engineering college!

Well, I think it was a combination of all the different factors, and of course the most important factor - "DESTINY" that I ended up being a software engineer. Not that I do not love my profession, I like it and enjoy what I do, but I will always be in awe of a doctor... I always have these thoughts when I am alone and relaxing, when I do not have anything else to think I guess ;) ... "what if I had been a surgeon... what if... "

But the optimist that I am, I always believe that whatever has happened has happened for the best! And I am happy with what I am now... :) Yet, I wonder... what if.....