The original comments didn’t bother me too much as I was offered a position and a salary. I also majored in Economics at George Mason University once upon a time and one of my professors, the eminent Walter Williams noted people always say they don’t get paid enough. His answer was “rubbish.”
He would retort that when you went to a store that sold a
gallon of milk for five dollars per you may think it was expensive, but if you
bought it, you didn’t think it was too expensive. Once, you think the milk was too expensive at
five dollars per gallon, you wouldn’t buy it.
His analogy for work was the same.
Your employer offers you ten dollars per hour to leave your leisure
activity whatever it is and trade that time for hours spent under the direction
of your employer, i.e. if you weren’t getting paid “enough” you wouldn’t come
to work.
Perhaps that is a reason why some people use their sick days
for mental health days, but the argument has always made sense to me. It has also made sense to me that sometimes
we want more than we have, but we are not necessarily ready to trade our time
or we can’t.
In any case, I recently took a different job in emergency
medicine than I had had. I did so with
some risk involved. I had a good career
going and was in a pretty good routine, but it was time for a shake up which
brings me to the Twitter post. Someone
posted a note I had written them thanking them for the suggestion I should
follow the dream I have had for years and all but abandoned when he and a
colleague suggested I not give up quite yet.
I am glad they did so as the encouragement and follow up has led me on an
entirely new course.
The path I am on now is a course of action which has me
energized and hoping for great things. I
hope it allows me to be the medical provider I want to be, i.e. the guy you
call when you are out of options.
Obviously this doesn’t come without some sacrifice, but perhaps I am now
ready to take on the accompanying requirements that go with this pursuit. I guess we will find out soon enough, but I
pray that my goal wasn’t just to get the job, but to do this job well. Again, we will find out.
I have a lot to live up to at this point, both those that
put their neck on the line for me – not just the ones who think they put their
neck on the line and the people who have guided me over the years to be the
provider I am today. I appreciate my
family who has sacrificed time away from daddy so he can pursue this and who
has built the blueprint by which I can be successful.
It’s a course of action I have mapped in my head a few dozen
times before only to be told no. A
course of action I may have been ready for didactically, a course of action I
may have been ready for skills wise, - but perhaps not ready for mentally. I think of the Rascal Flatts song bless the
broken road. Obviously, that talks about
all the broken relationships that leads to the right one, but perhaps their
song Forever is more appropriate.
I was off duty when a call came in for the transport of
twins who were born at twenty-three weeks.
The care of the mother of these children and the two children themselves
is obviously high stress, intense, and high stakes requiring not only the best
we have, but everything we should want to do for these people, not
patients. Perhaps a sacrifice I made
some time ago keeps in my mind that “though you’re gone, you’re still here, in
my heart, in my tears.” I pray my effort
will be better medicine than my tears for the others I hope and pray I don’t
lose.
In the meantime for my friends in public safety, stay safe
and strong. Remember, you are some of
those that provide hope to those that have none. It is a sacred trust and not one to be
carried lightly.
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