This article previously ran on May 3, 2016.
Today, I am a successful doctor, entrepreneur, public speaker and author. As an 18-year-old, I was a college dropout and a secretary with a five-year plan: Find a man to marry me. When the plan didn’t work, I renewed it at age 24. Note to my entrepreneurial self: Never renew a failing plan.
At 29, a disastrous relationship left me with everything I owned in a U-Haul trailer and living with my new roommates, Mom and Dad. I could have easily found another secretarial job, but I knew it was time for a major change.
I had heard, “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” I loved food, so I headed back to college to become a nutritionist. Three months into my education, I was feeling drawn to another field of study, but I was afraid to make another change. “What if I failed?”
I knew once I switched my major and made the announcement, there would be no turning back. When the fear of not doing it became greater than the fear of doing it, I decided to become a doctor. I worked hard for three years and graduated at the top of my class. Then, I was rejected from every medical school in the country. My dream was evaporating before my eyes.
Was the universe trying to tell me it was time to make another change? I wasn’t ready to give up on my dream, so I put myself through the yearlong application process again. I was accepted to the Mount Sinai School of Medicine — but life had changed.
I was now 35 years old. I was also six months pregnant and still didn’t have a husband. It was daunting. I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted a baby. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I wasn’t willing to give anything up.
Juggling medicine and single motherhood was exhausting, but I made it through! After graduation, I chose a career as an emergency room doctor, because the shift work enabled…