Will I Miss My Ex?

crispydocUncategorized

I've accepted a position outside of clinical medicine.

It represents an opportunity to continue to support the community health system I've been a part of to continue to ensure it's viability for the future, at the hospital where both my kids were born.

A little like going from player to coach while supporting the same team enterprise.

Making this decision from a position of financial independence makes it sweeter still - I'm choosing it for the challenge, education and intellectual engagement - not the paycheck.

On the one hand, it's not at all what I expected for my second act.

Seen from another angle, it's the culmination of perhaps four years of iteration, prototyping, and failing forward. I'd thrown a number of different ideas at the wall, but nothing had stuck until now.

The details are less important than the fact that this came about as a result of continually putting out feelers with new people in new places, persisting in the face of repeated failures, and eventually benefiting from fortuitous timing.

It was the Stoic philosopher Seneca, validated: luck occurs when preparation meets opportunity.

I'm leaving clinical medicine completely when I begin this new position.

Friends and family have asked if I'll miss medicine. What can you say about your ex-?

My romance with clinical medicine has run its course.

Our relationship taught me a great deal.

I was deeply committed and made a meaningful contribution as best I knew how.

There were some incredible highs, and some devastating lows.

Moving on to a second act does not diminish what we had, and I'll always hold a special place in my heart for the privilege of comforting a dying patient, extracting a barbie shoe from a toddler's nose, or making a diagnosis on a crashing patient in time to avoid an otherwise fatal outcome.

But I'm excited at the chance to prove myself in a new capacity with bright, strategic thinkers who have agreed to take me under their wings and teach me the ropes of a new body of knowledge.

It's thrilling to rekindle the old flame from my MPH days with population health management.

Life is handing me a golden ticket for a great new adventure that is simply too tempting to pass up.

I'll miss my ex-, but I won't dwell in the past.

It's just time to move on.

Life feels dizzy with abundance and the potential for reinvention!

I only wish that you, too, will know this feeling when the time is right, dear reader (if you haven't already).

Fondly,

CD