Before I decided on medicine, I think I switched my career choice about a dozen times, I started off wanting to be an engineer, a civil engineer to be precise. I wanted to build buildings and all sorts of civil infrastructure, I also happened to be IN LOVE with tractors and heavy industrial equipment, I vividly remember making a list of every tractor I wanted to buy when I became rich. I even said "And this one" every time I drove past one to remind myself to add it to the list. Then I started failing 3rd-grade math and decided engineering wasn't for me. But I didn't go cold turkey, I couldn't, my grandpa was a civil engineer, and the other one was a mechanic, so I had inherited a lot of their tools, which I would use to take apart and tinker all my toys with. I was (and still am) obsessed with restoring, fixing, and even taking things apart, and finding out how they work. As the great Tony Stark once said "Everyone needs a hobby"
Then around the age of 10-11, I fell in love with camping, survival, first aid, and everything to do with self-sustenance, I wanted to be one of those doomsday preppers who lived out the rest of their lives on a ranch, in a forest, above a nuclear fallout bunker ( i still am that person) but that's more of an end-goal than a career path.
Around the same time, however, I started to learn about the military/police background of my dad's side of the family, upon meeting all these cool family members and spending more time with them during summer and winter breaks, My passion for the armed forces grew more and more, I then became obsessed with war movies (my favorites being; Hacksaw Ridge, Fury, Jarhead, The American Sniper and Inglorious Bastards) war history, war games, and everything to do with the military. One day my uncle was visiting from Lebanon, He surprised me with a custom army uniform, and I was ecstatic, It was at that moment that I suited up, ran into my mom's bedroom, and declared that I wanted to join the Lebanese armed forces!!!! Obviously, my mom STRONGLY disagreed, she then told me if I wanted to join the army I would no longer be her son, as no son of hers was gonna be a martyr. To this day, I still dream of serving, and hopefully, one day, before I get too old, I get to experience what it's like to serve my country.
Following the reality check my mom gave me, I fell into a period of indecisiveness, over the coming years I would switch between my love for politics, science, photography, philanthropy, and mechanics. Exploring every different career choice possible, until one decisive night, August 4th, 2020, The Beirut blast. Following the horrifying scenes of bodies scattered on the road, the collapse of civil infrastructure, hospitals turning people away, and the slow deterioration of my home country's political structure and economy, I was hit with a realization, "I want to help people" I suddenly had this vision, of me being in that exact situation, doing emergency surgery on people who needed it most without charging them a single lira, it was my new life goal. I needed to become a trauma surgeon, that was how I was gonna help the world.
It wasn't as sudden of a realization as it may seem, I've always been interested in first aid and emergency medicine, I remember watching CPR tutorials when I was just 12, however, I never had a passion or a drive for it, something which I am so ever grateful to now have. I may not be exactly where I want to be regarding my medical journey, but I still have that drive, I'm still Zein, that 14-year-old kid who just wants to make a difference in the world.
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