Dear Kristin123:

Congratulations for making the correct choice for you and for your family.

Notice this: when you were young “everyone said how smart I was and I was going to be a doctor some day.” The “going to be a doctor some day” communicates to the child: you are not special now, but you will be IF you will earn social prestige and high income,

What if everyone said: you are smart. You make good choices for yourself. If they said that, you wouldn’t be second doubting yourself now.

If you were still teaching or if you were a doctor during the first long shifts very stressful years or residence and such, you could be terribly distressed at this point. This is why Medical doctors take and get addicted to drugs they find in the hospitals where they work, to keep themselves awake. And how many relationships do not survive that high stress job… and drug addiction or other methods doctors use to survive the high, high stress job?

To choose and live wisely, we have to unlearn many (not all) social conventions, particularly those so heavily promoted in the media and marketing: social prestige and financial wealth being all that matters. This is simply not true.

anita