Who Am I?

This is a question I have found myself considering repeatedly in recent years. When I was younger, it was easy to answer – I was an aspiring-doctor who also loved reading and writing stories. During medical school and residency, I was a student and then an anesthesiologist-in-training who didn’t have nearly as much time for reading and writing as I would have liked. After residency and fellowship training, I became a parent and creative writing once again fell to the wayside.

When you are young, it is easy to define yourself. As a child, you are your hopes and dreams, whatever you wish to be in the future. As a young adult, you are what you choose to study or the profession you strive to join. As you get older, after you’ve joined your aspired profession and perhaps started a family, your obligations and world-view change. You may come to think, is this it? Is this really all I am? Or is there more to me in this life?

Perhaps it is because with age you come to realize your time is not infinite, or perhaps because after years of devoting yourself to a single aspect of your life you find yourself longing for other pursuits. For me, it is the latter.

So, who am I? I am an anesthesiologist and mom to two wonderful boys, but I am also (still) a lover of stories. I love to read stories, hear stories, and tell stories. As a favorite author once wrote, “even adults need to hear a story every now and then.”

So here they are – my stories. These are stories about medicine, stories about parenting, stories about my observations of life, both true and imaginary. Some are pieces that have been published and others are perhaps publications-to-be. I invite you to come and hear them.