All my friends from high school planned to study at university. I had good grades and was the first to perhaps become an architect. But a friend said to me, ‘Oh, forget about architecture, you should become a doctor instead’. It made me spontaneously apply to the medical study in my home country Montenegro. I got accepted and thought ‘Oh well, this went fast, but if it doesn’t feel right I might just drop out”. I haven’t doubted once since that day. Today I’m studying to become a specialist in urology and the idea of having another job feels unreal. What has been a spontaneous idea a couple of years ago, is the most obvious thing right now. That I ended up in urology may seem strange to some. It’s not uncommon for friends to joke about the fact that I’ve become a “penis doctor”, but there’s so much more to urology than just being a “penis doctor”. Our patients consist of both men and women who may have suffered from things like uncomplicated urinary tract infections or kidney stones to complicated cancers. The patient group is very grateful, and because of the large spectrum within this specialization, the variation among my assignments becomes large. I get to operate a lot, which I love.
Sometimes an operation goes extremely fast and with a fairly small intervention you get a huge improvement. This is not because I am the best professional but because, thanks to research, we have a very effective treatment for particular diseases. Even a lot of older treatments still do the trick today. One could say that patients sometimes get a quick-fix, while on the other hand some operations take half a day. That is the charm, that the job is so different every time. Unfortunately many people get tired of their jobs. I’m 100% sure this won’t happen to me. You’ll never reach every goal and you can always learn some more. I think that is the key to never getting tired of your job. You must always get a balance between challenge, development and variation. Then your everyday life will never be routine only and you’ll never get bored.