At 33, From IT Engineer to Medical School in Bulgaria. The Real Reason I Decided to Become a Doctor.

Hi, I'm Yuichi.

I'm 33 years old, and I'm currently studying medicine at Medical University - Pleven in Bulgaria.

I used to work as an IT engineer in Tokyo. But a turning point in my life led me across the ocean, and I started walking the path toward becoming a doctor from scratch. Why would someone in their 30s make the leap into a completely different field like medicine? Let me tell you the story.

The Dream of IT, and the Wall I Hit

In high school, I was captivated by the infinite possibilities of computers. I taught myself C on my own, then majored in Information Systems at university, where I studied algorithm design and C#. After graduation, I started my career — coincidentally — in healthcare IT, working on electronic medical record (EMR) systems.

From there, I earned certifications like CCNA and TOEIC, and moved into server and network operations. Eventually, I landed a position at a major global IT company doing technical support.

But what awaited me there was a harsh reality. Massive English-language manuals. Hidden specifications that weren't documented anywhere. Increasingly complex system troubleshooting. I clung on desperately, but the gap between the demands of the work and my own aptitude kept widening. Day after day, I found myself mentally cornered.

A Sudden Goodbye, and a Fundamental Question About Life

Then, something happened that permanently altered the trajectory of my life.

My mother died suddenly of a subarachnoid hemorrhage. She was only 60.

I had seen her in good health at my parents' house just a week before. I had spoken with her on the phone the day before. The kind of thing you see in movies — "a parent dying out of nowhere" — happened to me. I couldn't even be there for her final moments. All I felt was an overwhelming, crushing helplessness.

No matter how advanced IT becomes, no matter how perfectly a system is built — human life is fragile, and it can end without warning. This experience became a powerful force driving me away from "digital code" and toward something I needed far more: working directly with human life.

Connecting the Dots: IT x Medicine, and the Challenge of BCI

Here's something I haven't mentioned yet: both of my parents were physicians and brain researchers. The respect I'd always had for them suddenly connected, in that moment, with everything I'd experienced in IT.

My struggles and experiences as an IT engineer were never wasted. Today, AI is rapidly being adopted across the medical field. I don't see this wave of AI as a "threat that takes away jobs" — I see it as a tool that can fundamentally upgrade medicine.

My biggest goal right now is to fuse cutting-edge technologies like BCI (Brain-Computer Interface), AI, and gene editing with medicine. I want to take the worlds depicted in sci-fi films like Ghost in the Shell — and make them not fiction, but real medical technology. The combination of my programming knowledge (I'm currently studying Python for data analysis) and the medical knowledge I'll gain here is an approach that only someone like me can take. I truly believe that.

Why "Bulgaria, at 33"?

Once my goal was clear, I consulted with my father and strategically searched for the fastest route to becoming a doctor. That's how I found medical universities in Bulgaria.

My criteria were simple and clear:

Affordable tuition
Relatively safe environment
No math or physics on the entrance exam (I've always struggled with those, honestly)
All courses taught in English

Bulgaria checked every box. I quit my job, spent six months at a language school, coordinated with the embassy to obtain my visa — and here I am, living the student life in Bulgaria. Looking ahead, I'm also considering pursuing a medical license in the United States or another country.

What This Blog Is About

On this blog, I'll be sharing the real, unfiltered experience of challenging medical school in my 30s, life in Bulgaria, and thoughts from the intersection of IT and medicine.

If you're struggling with your career, or thinking about starting something new — I hope this space can give you even a small push forward.

Thank you for reading, and welcome to yuichi.blog.