I am pulling from past experiences. Back in fifth grade I had already decided on being against Medicine when my father, a General Surgeon living in retirement, told me I still had my muscle spasms from birth in my hands so I would never pass the physical to be a surgeon. I wanted to be Corporate Lawyer instead. But he was against it so I thought of being a writer of screenplays and novels in my old age. My father did not even want me getting a part-time job in summers during high school because it could distract me from going to Medical School. He would tell me stories of friends who gave on medicine because of petty cash to watch a movie or buy ice cream. If you really want to take a year, you have to make you happy first. We suffer from the decisions we make, even agreeing or disagreeing with our parents.

Well, any genre can be done well.
A lot of good advice you have there, you’ve really thought it through 🙂 On another note I just watched a presentation called “American pictures” by a danish photographer who traveled through America’s slum and took pictures etc. etc. His presentation was really inspiring and makes me think that a year to do something else and experience other people would also be good.
Of course, taking a medical exam and then traveling to africa would also be along those lines x)

Just budget your time and do both, write and study your interests. I am trying to save up for a tablet P.C. so I could write anywhere. You could use it for school to take notes or write homework assignments, provided the tablet has print capabilities and you can print it at Internet Cafes on college campuses. I have an old laptop but it is too bulky to carry around. A “wifi” ready cell phone is another option. Write my novels on the body of an E-mail and save it in “draft” or send it to your own E-mail address to copy and paste to a desktop file of your novel. It would work for homework assignments of recapping a lecture. I use the Voice Recorder on a cell phone to dictate notes of my novels (WIPs). If you are serious about Medicine, you will eventually have to dictate and have a secretary type out your medical findings of a patient’s office visit or after you performed surgery. You will not have the time or the physical strength to spend hours at surgery with no sleep for 48 hours and then type out reports before you forget what you did. Improve your memory, why Latin is recommended. It might help in memorizing medical terms. Medical Romance, even though I grew up with General Hospital (soap opera on TV), is not something I am eager to write as well. But if an editor told me to write it, I am sure; I can come up with something.

Ugh, medical romances would never be my genre 😛
I’m definitely going to get an education for the experience in any case, and get a job also for the experience, but the question still is: where to put my heart? In the pursuit of a stable job, or the writing? If my future is in writing I should probably take the year off …
In any case I am working on those grades. If I don’t get good enough grades for medical school I’ll take the medical chemistry instead 😉

I decided against Medical School before my undergrad because I did not think I could handle getting mostly A(s) in Science and Math while at college. If you are capable of studying and can handle the course work, give it a shot. A Pre-Med in Chemistry or Biology will still land you a good job. Be a writer after you had years and years of life experiences. Medical Romances are hot.