Posted on 05.31.11 by Sharon Lin, DO

 

Let me start by saying that I do not have a perfect balance. If work and personal life were two opposite forces on either side of a seesaw and I was standing in the middle, I would clearly be losing my balance.  My seesaw is heavily tilted to the side of work.  This is because I've committed myself to becoming a family physician, which means residency responsibilities, constant learning and the task of taking care of other people - often the sickest of the sick and the poorest of the poor.  But where I see myself in the near future is changing the imbalance by shifting the fulcrum of the seesaw from the middle to the side that is heavier (work), so I can reach a state of balance. My fulcrum, in this case, is time.

Balance, in residency, is a constant juggling act.  By providing details on how I personally try to achieve balance in residency, my goal is to raise awareness on the subject of well-being and how to get closer to well-being as a medical student, physician, supporter of a physician, residency or a working-parent. 

Every resident has to consider how to balance personal life with the demands of residency training.  For my husband and me, we decided to start a family during my second year of residency.  We knew it would be hard to juggle, but we were ready.  Throughout most of my second year of residency, I was pregnant and worked all the way until the day I gave birth. One of the unfortunate problems with residency is that it is only flexible to a point, and where my residency was able to be flexible was moving my schedule around so I could use my vacation time (six weeks) for time postpartum.  Going back to working those long 60-90 hours per week was extremely difficult.  There were a lot of tears, a lot of sweat, and a whole lot of stress. But we survived.            . 

With the help of an au-pair and my husband who works full-time, I just barely manage to provide for my baby after coming home from work and on my weekends off.  We do not have extended family to rely on, so among the three of us, we are stretched pretty thin.  Balance is what we strive for, but without a village, times get rough.

Well-Being Often Takes a Village

When I think about my own well-being, I have to take into consideration my expectations and my priorities.  With most of my time dedicated to residency responsibilities, I have to prioritize very carefully where I put the rest of my time and energy.  Number one is time with my family, number two is chores, number three studying, number four self-reflection, number five socializing and number six health care transformation.  There are some months where none of these priorities gets much attention and there are weeks where I can do all six in a balanced way. Though I often feel guilty for not meeting my own expectations, I have been focusing more on building greater support so I can better share my responsibilities with others, guilt-free.  It really does take a village to help any resident feel well.

The truth is that maintaining wellness during residency has been a harder task than I predicted, but I still manage to have some wellness within me.  Luckily, my physical stamina has been excellent during these years, which has enabled me to sustain a busy life throughout my pregnancy and parenthood. The hardest struggle for me is mental well-being, which includes mindfulness and spiritual growth. I yearn for a simple joyful life where I can enjoy the art of being, as well as the art of healing. 

Multi-tasking may be a norm in residency, but it is not necessarily healthy. My co-workers and I work in a system where we eat while working, type while listening and, sometimes, think without feeling.  What we are finding throughout our training is that skills in a boundary setting and prioritizing are just as important as listening and cognitive skills. How do we best take care of others while taking care of ourselves?

Because of all the responsibilities I carry, my mental well-being has dropped from a nine out of 10 as a fourth year medical student to an eight out of 10 as an intern ... and now, it's a three or four out of 10 as a resident and new mom.  I am moving from survival mode to building a strong village.  

The following are a few survival skills I have acquired during the past three years of residency:

• Plan taking your paid time off (PTO) strategically in tough months of the year.
• Bring your infant with you to lecture and see if it works.
• Connect with others going through the same situation so you don't feel isolated (online communities are a great resource).
• Communicate your struggles as well as your successes.
• Proactively ask people if they have time to help, especially when call duty is heavy.
• Stagger easier work loads with hard ones so you don't burn out.
• Enjoy the outdoors whenever possible.
• Build a safety net of support; when things go awry you know whom to turn to.
• Plan your monthly calendar with your partners ahead of time to anticipate times of greater need for help.
• Consider a live-in nanny, au-pair and/or cleaning/food services.
• Ask for hand-me-down clothes, toys, crib, car seat and other supplies and pass them along as well.
• Invest in a rice cooker, slow cooker and/or George Foreman grill so that healthy meals can be quick and easy without standing over the stove.
• Make sure you have scheduled breast milk pumping time - it's your right, so don't feel bad about it, and don't put it to the side.
• Keep photos of your family handy to share and to keep you sane.

With residency coming to an end, I am looking forward to moving the fulcrum closer to my personal life.   I am proud of what I have accomplished during these residency years, but I can't wait for greater balance and well-being.   Hopefully, future residents will have an opportunity to live a more balanced life as work-hour changes occur this coming year.  

Posted on 03.31.11 by Sharon Lin, DO

With three months of residency left to go, I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  Three eventful years full of emotions, full of expectations, full of trials and tribulations.  Alas, how will I ever find closure?  My winter months were spent hibernating with chiefing duties in the hospital, so little was left in the way of sitting down and reflecting.  Recovering from those high cortisol months has been a slow downhill crawl, like the three weeks it took to break the delirious uneasiness before falling asleep.  Since those inpatient months, I've been trying to figure out what I'm going to do with myself after residency every free moment of the day. Today, I heard from the CDC position in global health that I would not be getting an interview. So there, that door finally closed after months of waiting. I have a few interviews at community health clinics.  Then there is this crazy idea of buying a house.  What about our pura vida fantasy of a Costa Rican getaway?  Well, the sky is the limit with how I want to spend the next 10 years of my life, but one thing is for sure: I don't want to sell myself short.  I want to suck the marrow out of life. I want every moment to become a memory and then a story to tell me grandchildren. Grandma lived her life to the fullest. Grandma lived with her heart first and foremost. Grandma understood joy very, very well.

Other news was that Match Day had come and gone, and the past weekend was resident retreat as well as my baby's first birthday. A new cycle of residents are swinging on by as the third year swings on out.  The current residents celebrated our retreat in beautiful Glen Ellen, where we staying in cabins and ate yummy camp food, danced, sung and hiked in the pouring rain. The rain never let up-all day and all night - but it kept us under the same roof and the fireplace kept us all cozied up together.  For that, I rather liked the rain. "Down comes the rain, down comes the sun, down comes the love ..." we sang into the night.

Posted on 11.29.10 by Sharon Lin, DO

 

This month of November is a month-long giving of thanks for me.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because giving thanks is so important and because it's a great time to sit with friends and family under one roof.  Today, I am thankful for having taken the afternoon off to spend a few precious hours rolling around the floor with my eight month old boy.  I only get to see him for an hour a day before bedtime and I leave before he wakes up this month while I chief OB.

As graduation from residency draws nearer, I wonder what will become of me post-residency.  I often ask myself where will I be when I'm forty years old?  Will I be proud of the decisions I made in my early thirties?  Because of this perspective, I've been finding the courage to make big-picture decisions about my future career. 

I'm in the process of applying to global health positions and looking to marry my skills in public health and medicine.  I want to focus on the social determinants of health. At the same time I feel the pull to establish roots in one community where friends and family live conveniently near by. It's a struggle of wanting to explore as well as settle down. 

One of my core beliefs is that we each should live our best life.  Dream big and commit ourselves to the dreams we have. After all, we only have one life to live, why not live it to the fullest?

Posted on 09.21.10 by Sharon Lin, DO

 

Living in Santa Rosa, far from family, my husband and I both work crazy hours and still manage to raise a baby on our own.  We recently found an au pair who has been able to help us out 45 hours a week, no more than 10 hours a day.  So now, between the three of us, our six month old is well taken care of, happy and healthy. 

People often say "I don't know how you do it."  So here it is: a few tips on motherhood and medicine I've learned these past six months.  We had to be creative in making our schedules work. Including taking my baby to work one afternoon a week, using PTO (personal time off) wisely, planning out our schedules in advance to balance busy rotations with easy ones, have a good non-resident friend watch my baby overnight when I'm on-call, pumping and storing a lot of breastmilk, co-sleeping, and coming up with just ONE personal goal to accomplish over a day.  We've had two date nights in the past six months, but I've managed to build in two dates over the next two weeks.  I saved up all my vacation and elective time so that my calls were fewer during the first few months post-partum. My husband commutes 3-4 hours a day so weekday evenings are up to me as well as the four times/night feedings since birth, but my husband helps tremendously on the weekends, stocking our house with food, meals and baby supplies while handling all our finances.

I wouldn't categorize myself as a Type A personality, but I do feel being organized is essential to making it work. I go through emails, snail mail, progress notes often so that nothing piles up.  With electronic medical records, we residents have more work without administrative time compared with our paper-chart days, so keeping on top of phone messages, labs, referrals etc. is both extremely important though verging on madness.  My to-do list went from a paper list to now two plastic filing cases of top things I have to get done.  I carry them everywhere and I feel like things are organized and being addressed.  I've got one bag for pumping and one bag for residency life.

Even with all this, I still have dinner with the family every night, bathe and put my baby to sleep every night, and spend most of our weekends still enjoying our friends, family, and the outdoors. Some weekends are just sitting side by side on the couch practicing the art of doing nothing. As I sit here typing, baby and dad are napping on the couch on this drizzly Sunday afternooon.  My mind drifts to what my impact on this world will be.  Life feels good and full.

 

Posted on 07.05.10 by Sharon Lin, DO

 

I'm officially a third-year resident. I feel an eager excitement as I did as an intern.  The possibilities for creating the right energy, the weight of my responsibilities to inspire the best in others, and the questioning course of decisions are all part of my new role.  Bring it on baby ... ‘cause I'm ready!

 

I woke up this morning thinking about the new word I wanted to define my upcoming year and was pleasantly surprised that I found it: COURAGE.  I need to have the courage to dream big again.  When residency is over I will have the chance to fulfill my lifelong intentions. There are so many routes to take, and for the first time, I'll have to decide the course.  Sure, everything will eventually lead to the right place, but I want the journey to be part of the pleasure.  Do I take the community health center route, the developing world route, or the entrepreneur route?  I need to have courage to dream big.

 

Another exciting aspect of being an R-3 is the chance to teach.  I love the idea of creating fertile ground for newbies to excel emotionally and cognitively.  Luckily there are some amazing mentors in my residency who have already created the right energy for me to model after and continue the legacy of promoting curious minds.  And of course there are people that I don't want to model after - that helps too.

 

On the motherhood part and work-life balance, I'm amazed at how wonderful being a mother is.  Sometimes it really isn't that easy, but for the most part it's doable with the help of a supportive community.  When I'm on a busy service at work, there is very little time to spend with my baby.  We mostly bond at night, during the feedings.  It's those wee hours of the night when I stare at the small face before me that all the magic of our relationship simply amazed me. As I'm totally head over heels in love.

Posted on 06.08.10 by Sharon Lin, DO

 

Another year of residency is coming to an end. Wow, what a crazy (but wonderful) year it has been.  I spend my entire R-2 year pregnant and as a new mom.  As I am typing, my two-and-a-half-month old is sleeping in my lap in a postprandial coma.  I began - and now I am ending -this year on an OB rotation-a highly pheromone driven year! 

This time last year, when asked how I wanted my R-2 year to be, I said decisively that I wanted it to be "delicious."  I wanted life to be delicious, using food as a metaphor for sensations.  Food lost its flavors and became bland during the process of becoming a doctor.  As an intern, I was being fashioned into an efficient well-oiled medicine machine, but that left me craving the intimacy and mindfulness of the art of the healing - the delicious part where you could take your time and actually listen and reflect on patients' stories like subtle flavors you roll around in your mouth.  I didn't want life to be bland, I want life to be rich in flavor.  I wanted it to be DELICIOUS!

Be careful what you ask for because I had NO IDEA that "delicious" would play out the way it did. I ate my way through my pregnancy loving everything and wanting seconds - and thirds. Food never tasted as good as when I was pregnant.

In a few weeks I will no longer be an R-2.  How do I want my R-3 year to be?  Well, I still want it to be delicious.  The rest, I haven't yet decided.

 

 

Posted on 03.26.10 by Sharon Lin, DO

 

March 18, 2010 was an auspicious day for family medicine as I know it.  As thousands of medical students across the country celebrated their residency placement on Match Day, I celebrated the birth of my firstborn child. 

On that eventful morning after, I waddled through seeing my patients in clinic, I joined my residency in calling the newly matched med students with applause and group cheers, welcoming them into our family and the larger family medicine field.  For the rest of the work day, we ran a workshop on creating the primary care medical home within our residency.  Thirty-minutes into the closing, our three hour long workshop, I felt a gush-my water had broke!  Surrounded by my fellow residents, faculty, and staff, everyone started cheering and applauding as they sent me off to bring our newest family member into the world.  Who knew Match Day would apply to me in such a way!

Now, as I sit here with my newborn curled up beside me, I am just now getting a precious moment to sit back and reflect on this beautiful experience. Fellow resident Dr. Michelle Mertz, our resident faculty Dr. Gary McLeod, and the nurses on our labor and delivery floor helped me birth a healthy baby boy while I was on all fours.  We birthed together with chaotic rapid decent and then a Zen-like purposefulness, this team that provided my new family with the security of continuity and trust-my own primary care medical home.

This year, I will be stepping up to the role of President of the resident wing of the California Academy of Family Physicians-another exciting opportunity to represent a voice for family medicine.  I hope to bring my experience as a resident, as a healer, as a (new) mother, and as an American to anyone who will listen.  In this year of health care reform, one of my goals is to make sure the ideals of our specialty our reflected in the reform details.  Traveling to meet with our legislators on a constant basis is empowering and I hope to help provide that opportunity and training for residents throughout our state.

Posted on 03.08.10 by Sharon Lin, DO

 

"Let's Seize Reform. It's Within Our Grasp!!!" - President Obama

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to go to Sacramento and learn more about the health care reform debate from Lori Heim, MD, the president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.  Unlike the daily articles that focused on the feud between Democrats and Republicans, I had a chance to learn about the details of the House, Senate, and president's health care reform proposals. 

Health care reform needs to happen, no question about that. What I didn't know was whether these proposed reforms would actually help Americans become healthier.  Isn't HEALTH the bottom line?  The US ranks 37^th in the world on health outcomes, according to the World Health Organization, while spending twice the percent of GDP than any of the developed nations.  For nearly 40 million Americans, our health care system is nonexistent piecemeal at best, as if this were a developing world.  What a shame.

After hashing out the details of the proposals, I've concluded that I want Congress to pass their health care reform NOW.  Why? Because I believe this reform will create a healthier America, a smarter America, a more cost-effective America, and a more just America.

Coverage, health promotion and disease prevention, Medical Homes for everyone, insurance market limitations, affordability, access. All these things need to happen with an initial $100 billion per year investment for a $1 trillion per decade savings.  What I want to see from reform is the opportunity for ALL Americans to have a better quality of life through good healthy living so we all can live our BEST life. 

That is why I am STANDING UP for Health Care Reform.  It needs to happen NOW.

Watch President Obama speak on this issue by clicking here

Posted on 02.01.10 by Sharon Lin, DO

 

Being a new mom is a bit like deciding to become an adult. I've always wondered what being an adult was really about. Lately for me, it means I need to make decisions about how I want to live, what I want to do, and what I need to do to get there. It's not like I've never thought about these things before, but now I feel the impetus to make firm commitments to myself.

1) Functioning Financially: I have to admit ever since I've been receiving paychecks in residency, I really have no idea how to properly manage the money I make. I know that this is not unique to me. Residents can barely cook themselves a meal each day, let alone think about their finances. Making money has allowed me to live day-to-day without borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars as I did in school over the entirety of my adult life thus far. My first step in taking control was deciding to go to the library on a golden weekend and check out a few books on money matters so that I could learn the lingo and figure out what financial products are out there. With a huge debt, a lame-duck bank account, and no foresight on investments, I feel every bit as inadequate and ignorant about my future as the next person. It is evident that if I really want to live out my dreams, I have to understand how to function well financially.

2) Functioning Osteopathicaly: When I was an undergraduate freshman at UC Davis, I was introduced to the concepts of osteopathic medicine and met several alumni who decided to take this unconventional route. I immediately was intrigued by the principles of osteopathic healing such as approaching the body as a whole, using the power of listening with our hands to understand the bodys function in relation to its structure, and to help the body in its own healing process. I am so proud to be a DO and to have the foundation of these guiding principles as I try to relate to my patients on a meaningful level. It is definitely not easy to live holistically or practice holistic healing, but it is a definite goal for me as well as the people I interact with.

3) Functioning as Modern Woman: I am the third generation of women on my maternal side who have worked full time both inside and outside the home. I watched my mother tackle multiple roles while still putting dinner on the table, managing the family's finances, and helping her siblings and parents on so many levels. She never had time for herself. It wasn't until she graduated from working that she started breathing fresh air, paying attention to her body, and discovering the joy of hobbies and spirituality. I'm trying to figure out what being a modern woman will be for my generation. Is working part time the solution? Can I afford to do that as long as I live a simple life?

I dont have the answers in front of me. I'm thinking about it, talking to people, and reading about it. Carving out the time to think about these issues is important to me, as much as being out in nature or getting together friends and family. Who knows how the future will play out, but I yearn to be in control of my own destiny.

Posted on 01.07.10 by Sharon Lin, DO

One last inpatient service as a second year before I spend two more months in outpatient in my third trimester of pregnancy.  I can't believe R-2 year is halfway over. Having stacked several inpatient rotations today, I am just flying through like a mad woman - with my huge belly swaying up and down the halls. Somehow I've been blessed with little fatigue and a huge appetite for anything edible. Amazingly, I am still grateful for our comp'ed cafeteria food! 

My partner says I look like Santa Claus the way my scrubs ride high on my belly.  I suppose I need suspenders to keep them from falling completely off since most days my gigantic belly sticks out like Pebbles Flintstone's.

Other than when I catch my own reflection, I am still in huge denial of being pregnant.  Residency seems to dominate most of everyone's lives and thoughts, and it will be interesting to have a competing interest when I become a mom. The only thing momma-like I've done was when I went to a holiday craft fair recently and found an egg necklace booth.  There were these adorable quail egg necklaces that can be carefully crafted with small scenes inside them.  You can't even imagine the joy I had when I found this booth and brought home one with a scene of two quails over their nest of eggs.  Ahhh... nesting. I am SO loving the nesting. It's so silly - yet so, so satifsying.

I am ready for a whole lot of nesting. Even with a Q 4 in patient schedule, I'm making precious time to nest, decorate, cook, celebrate, and simply enjoy sleeping in a cozy bed.

Posted on 11.2.09 by Sharon Lin, DO

Now that I've had a few weeks to recuperate from long inpatient hours, I'm feeling more alive. It's been a few months now that I've neglected thinking outside the box.  Now I have the energy and motivation to send out a green signal, get out of the box, and rejoin society again at large.  A faculty mentor, Ben Brown, once told me that life would always be undulating with ups and downs. I'm trending up again - yippeee!

I cleaned my room, brought out the winter things, organized my life, stretched my stiff body, rewrote a few simple goals and taped it to my bedroom wall, got a haircut and actually spent time carefully brushing my hair and trimming my nails ... yes, it's those human things that we residents never take for granted.

More importantly, I'm investing my new extra time not only taking care of myself, but checking in more with my colleagues.  We need to keep supporting each other whenever we can.

Recently the few minorities in the program met over dinner for the first time and spoke candidly about our feelings, explored intuitively as we haven't been able to put into words, and made a good effort to improve the communication of our shared experience. It was truly a humbling and wonderful opportunity.  Open-minded communication in all directions is always the most important lesson of any working environment.   I am grateful for the women and minorities who have created the path to having a presence and a voice over these past few decades.

Lastly, the question of what will our collective future holds has trickled back into my mind.  It makes me excited to think that in order for me to be where I want to be in five, 10, 20 years from now, I need to start planning and building now, in the present moment.  There are so many opportunities: health care reform advocacy, clinic efficiency and Patient Centered Medical Home, and community capacity-building.  I want to do it all, but I only have so much time. How about beginning with simply being. Yes, I am happy simply being in this moment.

The bright orange pumpkins still sit invitingly on doorsteps.  The morning fog lingers over all the porches like a veiled ladies waiting for their carriages.  The air is crisp and fresh.  With a kick-step, today I will start my day.

Posted on 10.12.09 by Sharon Lin, DO

It's been four months since I started my second year of residency and I started off with three tough months of inpatient work and another month of Spanish emersion abroad in between.  Working my butt off in the beginning of second year has really prevented me from having the space to breathe and reflect, but alas the time has come that I now have a moment to recollect my thoughts and write again. I am again grateful for so many things that I never had the energy to appreciate in those long 80-hour weeks, when day and night bled into one other.  Now I can see the sky, smell the rain, touch the leaves now golden and red, reflect on the changes in my belly - four months of a new life developing within!

Pregnancy! Miraculously, this new life slipped into my tumultuous routine and made it through to the light of day.  Together, we have been lucky by avoiding morning sickness and fatigue while managing to sneak in monthly prenatal appointments post-call.  It has been a challenge to set my efficient well-oiled machine-like mind aside, to look into my patients' eyes and once again connect with their souls, not just their ailments.  I miss that kind of connection; the kind of connection that comes so easily to med students and to new interns.

I am consciously starting to make that missing link a new priority, starting with my pregnancy.  This week, at four months gestation, I am giving my pregnancy a chance to be listening to. It took this long because work occupied so much of my attention and so much of my effort.  What I once enjoyed as a tremendous learning opportunity, I now called "work," and the glimmer of curiosity and empathy became overshadowed by hospital efficiency and protocol.  Pregnancy, I hear you. Patients, I will be there.  To my spirit, let the reparations come gently.

Grateful I am to my precious golden weekends that I fill with long hikes down winding coastal trails. Grateful I am to my family and friends.  Grateful I am for the changing seasons.  Grateful I am for the love my partner and I share, and for the love that came out of our love.

Posted on 06.19.09 by Sharon Lin, DO

Intern year has ended and I made it out alive - barely.  After getting yet another viral URI, I finally succumbed to my weakened immune system and called in sick for the first time this year.  I slept for 14 hours to catch up on two weeks of sleep deprivation due to working nearly 90-hour weeks.  Now that I passed the finishing line, I'm on a two-week reprieve called Transition and Renewal as I gear up for the responsibilities of being a second-year resident.  I've waited very patiently for renewal (sigh) and expect rosier cheeks and a hop to my step by the time I'm through with it.

There will be gardening, advocacy work, teaching at a local school, creative writing and the like to help in this wonderful process of renewal.  There will also be some time to reflect on what we want to accomplish in the larger picture.  Don't you just wish every employer allowed people to renew their spirits and nourish their souls?  Just imagine what that could do for our society.

In my sparest of spare times, I've been dreaming up some grand projects to help create community, improve quality of life, and reduce social disparities.  On July 15, I will moderate a Grand Rounds panel discussion addressing poverty in Sonoma County and reducing the social disparities gap.  The panelists include the leaders of our county's Public Health, Economic Development, Education, and NGOs sectors.  It will be videotaped on put on a multi-media Web portal addressing quality of life from street to society. 

I'm so excited about this upcoming event after a year of planning and networking.  I hope you will all be able to see it and give me advice or feedback!

Posted on 5.26.09 by Sharon Lin, DO

We often see people in the midst of their pain body. Sometimes, we can even see our own pain bodies.  These pain bodies have negative repetitive thoughts that cause suffering and suffocation.  I have been learning a lot about how to best interact with pain bodies.  My teachers say we should be observers in suffering as well as of our own suffering.  Awareness of thoughts is the first step in changing the way thoughts affect our actions and words.  Being present and conscious is a difficult practice, but I have been told it gets easier when you keep working at it.  There is stillness within the rustling leaves.  There is grace within my slowest exhalations. I am catching repetitive thoughts.  Let there be a breeze of peace.

Practicing the art of medicine is a spiritual journey - storytelling cloaked in incidents and adventure.  I am carried through the lives of many people, some grateful, some lacking hope, and many quite endearing.  Taking the time to process these experiences with spiritual exploration is an important aspect of this art form.  We are all capable of having a spectrum of emotions because we are human and the energy we carry with us can be put to wonderful uses as well as detrimental ones.  I am taking this moment to acknowledge how it feels to be humbly alive.  I am forever learning.

Posted on 4.30.09 by Sharon Lin, DO

By now, students who have matched with their respective residency programs can let out a huge sigh of relief because they now know where there will be during the next three years.  The poor partners of these residents have closure as well after months of searching and wishful thinking.  The torment of not knowing "WHERE???" is finally over. 

I remember feeling so elated about my new residency destination a year ago, I immediately started thinking about what it would be like and what my new role would be.  Of course, everyone warned me about the long hours and, naturally, I wondered if I had what it took - physically and intellectually - to survive.  Intern year is different for everyone, and drastically so even within the same program, but for me, intern year has been lovely. 

Lovely? Really? Yes. Compared to med school, residency is fantastic. Not only do I have good rapport and continuity with my patients, I have a supportive environment of people who care so much about other people, the community, and the world at large.  I don't know if I will ever have the opportunity to be surrounded by so many wonderful folks.  Family medicine brings out the best of med students. I am biased, but that is what I've experienced.  Of note, my quality of life is BETTER. Work hard, play hard, and the balance of the two is key.

So Congratulations! Cheers to the newly matched residents. I wish fun, adventure, and reflection as you finish your fourth year and become interns in a few weeks.