Dear friend,

...Learning and practicing medicine has definitely been a refreshing dose of reality. In the real world, patients have a myriad of problems they are dealing with, but you only have the scripts and skills to deal with a handful of those problems. And by dealing with them, we mean providing limited treatment for comfort, and rarely a cure. Especially in the area of psychiatry I'm interested in, our knowledge and
 treatments can be sorely lacking.  Cue the Stanford brand of medical school: training future doctors who will advance research. I must admit research for me was never my calling; I was definitely more interested in the service and teaching aspects of medicine... but nowadays I am really learning to appreciate the need for research and the satisfaction of making a new discovery, however small, that can impact our understanding of an illness. I can certainly see myself as an academic physician, doing a little bit of research, teaching and seeing patients...