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OK, time for a bit of a change-up.
I feel that this blog has become a little repetitive. I am completely at peace with my decision to leave medicine, but I realize I wasn't coming across that way, as I kept harping on the topic. Time to start branching out. I will (mostly) save the delving-into-why-I-left-medicine for the book I'm (supposedly) writing (including lots of gory details I haven't yet gotten into here), and start to explore some new topics on Ye Olde Blogge.
Change is good. I have always been a person who changed paths every few years. What on earth made me think I could stick it out for 30 or 40 years in one career? Or for very long on a single-topic blog, for that matter... After four years of high school, I was off to spend a year in Sweden as an exchange student. Back home, I went to college for four and a half years. Then another year abroad, working in Ireland and Scotland. Then back home again, working in clinical research for a year and a half while I applied to medical school. Four years back east for med school, then four years in the desert for residency. I liked making a change every few years, although I was mighty sick of moving. I am now resettled in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. I hope never to leave, but I like the idea of changing directions every few years, keeping things fresh. How did I ever decide to commit myself to a lifelong career path? I was clearly not listening to ALL the voices in my head, including the ones that indulged in two minors in the Humanities.
I have been radio-silent on this blog for awhile.. Not only was I feeling stuck in a topic-rut, but I was plugging away on the editing work pretty much every day. While I enjoyed (and still do enjoy) that work, I had a wonderful opportunity come up to make a shift (again with the change!) into clinical informatics. What now, you say? Clinical informatics is basically the effort to disseminate medical information in a meaningful way. In the case of my current project, it is making electronic medical records make sense by standardizing terminology. (You can't imagine how many ways people come up with to say the same thing!) Anyway, I got out of the habit of writing, even as my new job freed up some time to write. This has been a very positive change, exposing me to a field I didn't really know existed. And I still have time to do some freelance editing, keeping a toe in that pool and maintaining some variety in my work week.
And so I am embracing the change. My path away from my previous career track has led me here, and I couldn't be more thrilled! They say that nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition... well, when I was in medical school and residency, I never expected to be working from home at a job that makes me happy and making enough money to cover the mortgage! It is completely different from my previous life, and that suits me just fine. What will I be doing in 10 years? Or even 5 years? Who knows! That's the exciting part. Life's too short to do anything other than what makes you happy... and apparently change makes me happy. So stay tuned... and expect the unexpected...
image credit: gretachristina.typepad.com
