“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”
Robert Frost
Most of us physicians, including myself, have had a rather linear path to becoming a doctor. College, then straight into medical school, then residency, then practice. Looking back, my own training journey seems so clear and regimented. Any struggles I had were in the work itself, not in the career choice. The path was clearly marked, and the hardships (and there were a few) were strewn along that straight and narrow path. I never had a full-time, on-my-own adult job until I was 29, as a freshly minted family doc.
But some of our colleagues took a different path, sometimes multiple paths, before their FM career. This month’s guest, Dr. Brian Lanier, had to choose between several diverging roads. He has been a college music major, a college business major, a Marine aviator, a Marine communications officer. And then, while actually driving along a road, he met a fate that again changed his life path.
All of us Family Physicians, regardless of the roads we have taken, will identify with and be inspired by Brian’s story. For we all know that Life sometimes gives us lemons, but what we do with those lemons can make all the difference.
Lee Beatty, MD