My fiancé joined the Army at 30-something after he had his own chiropractic practice for seven years. He joined to do something different, to walk away from all the filing cabinets and white collars and patients who didn't listen to solid advice. When I met him, he was dodging becoming a sergeant because he hadn't had enough time of enjoying his freedom from bureaucracy. He did 10 years and got out as a sergeant. The Army was a tool for him to shift gears and career paths. He's now an instructor on the cyber side who gets to futz around with technology and he couldn't be happier.

I don't know why he went through medical training for his higher education choice when he was in his 20's, but that's not who he is now. Somewhere along the line, he just changed his mind. It was the right choice for him.

Mentoring people is about helping them realize their own goals and aspirations, not making those goals for them. You're an officer, not a tiger mom.

I'm in a similar situation, but with education. In the enlisted grades, people keep clamoring that I need to get a degree and I should do so by taking courses online. They swear that I'll be damaging my future prospects and hurting my chances for promotion to SFC and MSG by not getting whatever bachelor's degree I can get now. I tell them, as respectfully as possible, to sit down and shut up. I want to get a real education and not some monster mash of my military career that transforms into "experiential credit" so I can buy a degree. Every time someone with their UMUC master's tries to tell me about all the great government civilian jobs I could get with my veteran's preference and a purchased degree, I tune them out.

This guy is probably tuning you out, and he should. Instead, you could probably learn something from him about doing what you want to do in life instead of what other people tell you is best.