Today we started working on the words for the the landing page of my new professional website – drtamarabavendam.com. This daily writing has given me the opportunity to reflect on memories of pivotal times on my journey. Today I will share how I got started on path to being a doctor.
I grew up in an extended family where men were farmers and women were teachers (if they worked off the farm). We did not go to the doctors often and used many home remedies for common illnesses. I watched Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare and Marcus Welby on TV during the sixties. My parents were not living on a farm when I was in school so I went to “farm camp” every summer for 4-6 weeks splitting my time between my grandparents farms that were 2 miles apart. I spent my time with gardening, canning, laundry, cooking, cleaning, sewing, knitting, etc. I was never allowed to drive a tractor – likely a good decision.
My escape during farm camp was reading. When I was 9-10 years old, I discovered the Cherry Ames series of novels. Cherry was a young women in nursing school. Through these novels, I decided I wanted to be a nurse. I did know a woman on a neighboring farm who was a nurse. When I mentioned my interest in nursing, my grandfather told me he had always wanted to be a doctor but had to quit school after the 8th grade to help on the family farm. I thought perhaps he was why I was drawn to a medical field. It would have never occurred to me to be doctor.
I enjoyed school. I studied hard and got good grades. When I was in the 10th grade, I was in a accelerated independent-study biology group. At the end of that year, my biology teacher told me I was smart enough to be a doctor and I should consider that rather than nursing. HUH!!! I was drawn to the “care taking” aspect of nursing and I had no frame of reference for being a doctor outside of TV.
I pondered it over the summer. I had conversations with the nurse I knew who shared her dissatisfaction with more paperwork and less time in direct patient care as nursing assistants were being used more. She also voiced frustration that she had to follow the doctors orders even when she had a more informed perspective from spending more time with the patients. I already knew that I had a hard time following directions that did not make sense to me so perhaps nursing was not the best choice for me. I had no idea if I was smart enough for medical school, but a teacher I respected did. I liked school and was not put off by the number of years for medical school and residency. I decided that I would go to medical school so I could be a decision maker as well as a care taker.
I have often wondered if I would have arrived at this decision on my own. A teacher was a powerful disrupter in my life. I am not sure I ever let him know how impactful that statement was. I hope I did.
Tamara Unleashed 
This blog made me smile because Brian was in 5th grade and in the lowest reading group (not interested in school at all). All he wanted to do was pitch for the Cubs 🙂 About that time one of his teachers told him that she believed he could pitch for the Cubs if he wanted to HOWEVER, if he didn’t know how to read very well or understand math….he would likely get cheated or not get very good contracts since he wouldn’t be able to understand them. That’s also when sports stars get taken advantage of by their agents, etc.
That lit his fire to be a better student and my mom to this day credits Mrs. Hutts with Brian’s sudden interest in school and drive to learn 🙂
LikeLike