Is 35 Too Late for Med School?

“I am 35 years old. I always wanted to be a physician but I never felt I could do it. Now I am in my second career and I have decided that I do want to be a doctor. Is it too late?”

"Don’t fear the wind coming against you — remember, a kite rises against the wind, not with it.”

That line was written on a birthday card my father gave to his younger brother on his 35th birthday, when he was deciding whether to give up his comfortable career as a pharmacist to go back to school and become a doctor. Today, my Amu Hamoodi is one of the most caring, determined, empathetic physicians I know. But not so long ago, he was standing exactly where you are. He was wondering if it was too late.

Spoiler: it wasn’t. He took the leap. And every patient who’s crossed his path is better for it.

I’m the oldest child in my family, so for as long as I can remember, I’ve invited myself into the grown-ups’ conversations. I’ve decided that this is an unspoken perk of being the big sister who had to help raise my siblings. If I was going to care for everyone like an adult, I figured I’d earned my seat at the table.

That particular table, our old family dining room marked with the pencil marks and paint as remnants of our childhood, is where I witnessed one of the most important conversations of my life. My dad, already an attending physician, looked at his brother and said, “There really is no other option. You’re meant to be a doctor.” There was this feeling in the room that it was already written in the stars. Everyone believed it except my uncle himself.

Of course, real life made the decision harder. He had kids to care for. His wife was a resident at the time, exhausted and raising newborn twins. How could he abandon a solid salary for a path that promised sleepless nights, debt, and exams?

After hours of back and forth, we left the table closer to a decision, but not all the way there. Then came that birthday card. I will never forget his face when he read it. It was as if my father handed him permission to believe it would be hard, but that it would be worth it.

My family is a family of immigrants. Both men built new lives in a new country from the ground up. Neither ever shied away from hard work. Why start now?

When I got to medical school, my class was a beautiful mix of fresh-faced 20-somethings and parents who’d chosen to leap later in life. Those “non-traditional students”  were some of the best students in the room. Many were moms before they were med students. When my anatomy test went badly, it felt like my whole world crashed down. When their test went badly, they went home to little faces who didn’t care about grades. They cared that Mom was home. They had perspective and grit that books can’t teach.

The life you’ve already lived will make you a better doctor. You’ll relate to your patients in ways I can’t. You’ll bring maturity, real empathy, and resilience to the room.

Yes, it will be hard. But anything worth having usually is. In five years, you can wake up a 40-year-old physician —or a 40-year-old still wondering what might have happened if you’d just believed you were worthy of trying.

I believe you are. I hope you do too.

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