darkxtwisty

Honesty, I think Meredith hasn't found her passion yet. Truthfully, I think that's what it boils down to. She's not passionate about General. It was her second choice. Her first choice was Neuro. We saw her shine repeatedly in Neuro, over and over, but she gave that up to save her marriage. That's when her career took a dip. We've never seen her fight for anything in General like she did for her clinical trial in S4. Last season, she let Bailey walk all over and instead decided to go play with her baby. She doesn't seem at all passionate about her work. We haven't seen her continuing her research at all, either. I don't think she really cares about it, to be honest. She needs to find something she does care about. She wants to be successful, but like many, she chose a career path that doesn't truly interest her, so she's frustrated.

Also, is it just me, or does Maggie seem more interested in General than Cardio? Heck, we saw her completely enthralled by Richard's procedure in 11x3, and she's interested in Bailey's Genome Lab (which I realize could cross paths with several specialties, but still).

LG Stargirl

Listening to Shonda's Dartmouth speech this summer, she clearly infused some of her own personal issues with balancing career and family into Meredith. So many things Meredith has struggled with are from Shonda's experience -- especially things like when she was upset about Zola missing her tea party due to both her and Derek being in surgery, etc.

Shonda said there is no answer to this, you just do your best. I have no doubt Meredith will find her way to shine brightly professionally, because even though Shonda struggles with these issues, there's no question she's one of the most successful in her field. They'll want to show that side of it as well in Mer's storyline.

darkxtwisty

It makes me wonder if there was ever a time in Shonda's own life where she doubted herself. I think it's a pretty common feeling, because I can totally relate to how Meredith's feeling right now. Everyone else around her is shining, and she feels stuck. I'm there right now. It's what makes Meredith a relatable character, and that's what makes her so amazing. I feel her pain, and Ellen portrays her so beautifully.

posterity

Maggie is out of hand with her Mary Sue. I took her interest in Richard's surgery to be another way to showcase she could do it all. I doubt she is switching specialties, unless she pulls an Arizona and decides to double specialize, which I wouldn't be surprised if they attempted to do it.

Well to be fair, Alex is not shining himself. Far from it actually. The poor guy doesn't even get a perspective to even state that he feels that he is floundering and yet the audience can clearly see he is floundering.

darkxtwisty

Isn't everyone who completes a surgical residency technically a general surgeon? There's no fellowship for general surgery, so Maggie probably did a general surgery residency then a Cardio fellowship. She would have barely just finished her fellowship. She's 31 but skipped two grades. So, she could have started her residency at 23, finished that at 28, then did a two year fellowship, which she would have completed at age 30.

gladluvgrey

That's depend of every country programs. In the US I believe everybody does the 7yrs General Surgery training and then go for a fellowship of the specialty they want and that fellowships have different time frame depending of every program. Of course the more complex might take more time. In my country is a bit different...not every surgical specialty needs the whole being a general surgeon thing.

I think Maggie was just gushing about Richard's abilities...A splenectomy is a procedure you dont do in 20 mins, well in trauma cases it can happen, but in normal circumstance is a longer procedure...I dont think is because she wants to go back being a general surgeon

LG Stargirl

General surgery is an actual specialty, which is why they show general surgeons being needed if a cardio patient, for example, also has liver issues. Not sure about the fellowship process though.

General surgery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

darkxtwisty

In the pilot, Richard said, "The seven years you spend here as a surgical resident..."

Though, their residency only elapsed over five years, even though it was seven years in real time. Due to GA timeline, it was only five years, and Meredith said something in season 8 or 9 about it having been only five years, and Tuck (Bailey's son) started kindergarten in season 9, and he was born in season 2. So that's five years.

So I guess they decided to make residency five years long in GA-world. Cristina's and Alex's fellowships were two years long.

gladluvgrey

It is a specialty...and the thing is that when some specialized in something, cardio, plastic, neuro, people stop doing some procedures and therefor, skills in those cases arent the same as someone who do them all the time. Surgeons skills are perfected by practices so is a rule followed by surgical fields people. Hope that helps !

darkxtwisty

I knew it was a specialty. I just meant there's not a fellowship, so say if Maggie *wanted* to be a General surgeon and give up Cardio, it wouldn't be hard for her to do that. Though she could still do Cardio. But since she's a genius, it wouldn't surprise me if she did both regardless. Plus, since she's a perfect Mary Sue, she'll probably do some Neuro and Ortho while she's at it. She's Super Woman.

gladluvgrey

She is going to screwed it at some point...I think they want to highligh her skills to make the "she is Ellis daughter" more apparent...but no genius or surgical god in Grey's escape a bad case so...it will come...

And yeah, everyone who completed a general training could go back....the thing is that we never want to go back! LOL

darkxtwisty

I need her to have a bad case. Or one where Meredith is right and she's wrong. Seriously.

gladluvgrey

That's so true....and may I add....Ellis was a genius and an extraordinary surgeon but she wasnt really happy, not even with that driven career that was supposedly to be what she wanted....at the end, the label of extraordinay came from people outside, I dont really think Ellis felt that complete...not at all...

posterity

She is terrible.

QueenMeredith

She wasn't truly happy. If Richard chose her, her life would've been much different. Not just focused on being a surgeon. The flashback from season 3 say it all.