Up to a certain point, cans are more valuable than our cannots. An important can from my early adulthood: learning I can be a teacher. I'd never taught anything, but I learned how. From then on, I knew I could do something I'd never done before. This has been a valuable understanding. Though, past a … Continue reading Newsletter #102: Where Capability Meets Its Death
Tag: career change
Newsletter #101: “What Choice?”
If you can survive yet another Rounders reference, read on. Mike McDermott (Matt Damon) is standing on the threshold. If he turns around, he'll become an attorney. If he steps forward, he'll admit he's a poker player. At the halfway point of the movie, he still thinks it's possible to live both lives. And why … Continue reading Newsletter #101: “What Choice?”
Newsletter #100: The Wrong Turn to Right
Why did I stay inside medicine for so long? Why didn't I quit after a year? Or two? Or seven? I always knew what I wanted—which was to quit medicine—but I took one wrong turn and kept driving. For eight years. Why?!?!?!? My best guess is that I needed it. I went to medical school … Continue reading Newsletter #100: The Wrong Turn to Right
Newsletter #99: Where I Use to See Bears, I Saw Shipping Containers
Jiving hip-to-hip with the French Broad River, Amboy Road was my favorite cross-cut through Asheville. A superb scenic route, it had the essentials: views of flowing water, panoramas of an expansive park, trails full of conversing groups, and curiously, an old Nascar short-track converted into an outdoor cycling velodrome. On harder days, ones where I … Continue reading Newsletter #99: Where I Use to See Bears, I Saw Shipping Containers
Newsletter #97: To Hell in a Handbasket, or…
I wrestled my backpack free from under the seat and unzipped its front. My fingers traced the pocket's compartments, searching for the rounded contour of my AirPods. They found nothing. Except a rock-hard, half-eaten Larabar from trips past. This is gonna be a loooonng cross-country flight. I did have a steaming cup of black coffee … Continue reading Newsletter #97: To Hell in a Handbasket, or…
Newsletter #96: Honesty is the How
"You were a really good psychiatrist; I looked up to you," she said between margarita sips. "I never would have guessed." I guzzled half the lager in my right hand, then said, "Appreciate you saying that, really, but I suppose that says something in itself, right?" We chuckled, took a brief stroll down our shared … Continue reading Newsletter #96: Honesty is the How
Newsletter #95: Not Needing to Shave My Head
To become a doctor, it required I study. To study subjects I didn't want to study, it required I mainline coffee until my right eyelid twitched. To obtain a daily caffeine dose capable of curing ADHD, I became a regular at the city's coffee shops. Still, come late afternoon, my attention would beg for relief … Continue reading Newsletter #95: Not Needing to Shave My Head
Newsletter #94: A Legend If I’ve Ever Met One
Last Saturday night, at the tires of a truck driving too fast, we lost a friend and hero: our neighbor's tuxedo cat, Rainbow Houseboat. That's one hard-to-live-up-to name—given by the neighbor's children—but not only was the name lived up to, it was mythologized as legend. One evening, I watched her stalk a herd of eight … Continue reading Newsletter #94: A Legend If I’ve Ever Met One
Newsletter #93: Do Something. Anything.
After a furniture project finished ahead of schedule Monday, another one fell through entirely on Tuesday. Suddenly, my week was open. Being the end of the month, I didn't like this freedom one bit; I wanted paid work. Bills were being billed. Savings needed saved. Roth's needed Roth'd. Inside this time affluence, two paths appeared: … Continue reading Newsletter #93: Do Something. Anything.
Newsletter #92: Bottom of the Same-Old Hole
During an early session of our work together, my therapist handed me slip of paper printed with Autobiography in 5 Chapters, a poem by Portia Nelson. "How could I do this to myself?" I asked her, ashamed by my recent repeat of a same-old mistake. "I said this would never happen again!" "Just read the … Continue reading Newsletter #92: Bottom of the Same-Old Hole