I have four amazing things in my life. The first one came first – a job as a Doctor. I am an Anesthesia and Critical Care Doctor, and staff the medical, surgical/trauma and cardiothoracic critical care units at a midwest tertiary care hospital. I actually completed a residency and chief residency in pediatrics before I switched fields, and somewhere in the course of medical school and the back-to-back residencies I fell victim to feeling like a victim, and being a chronically complaining, always tired and mopey young doctor. I am now a recovering from the culture of complaining and try to remind people around me that our jobs can, in fact, be as cool as they thought they could be when we all wrote our personal statements. You know, the one about being there people going through dark times, learning all about physiology and science, and then helping people physically and emotionally? Well, that’s my job now, and I feel lucky to be in this profession.
The second amazing thing in my life is actually two things – I have two wonderful daughters who keep me grounded and remind me that a whole bunch of the time I better be a Daddy first and a Doctor second. They are fun, bright shining lights and even as they are getting older, they will always be my little girls. There will always be a part of me that only they will see and experience. I am so proud of them, and have a deep sense of joy being a Dad.
The third amazing thing in my life is my wife. My wife has kept me grounded and is there for me when I’m tired, complaining and struggling to do all the things I want to do. She’s also the first person I want to share my life with, as it happens. Nothing feels real until I’ve shared it with her. I am intensely blessed to have her here with me.
Finally, the fourth amazing thing in my life has been there all along. My family has taught me to love and be loved. They laid the foundation for me to be everything I can be, but also to remember that being “everything I can be” is actually sometimes just chilling on the couch with friends and family. In other words, they’ve taught me the most important lesson to take through life – to see what’s important and what isn’t. To accept the things I can’t change, and the courage to change what I can.