I made a promise to myself, early in fellowship, to prioritize art (specifically literature). During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wrote often. I wrote about the shift in the dynamic between patients/families and providers; I wrote about nature; I wrote about friendship; I wrote about the people I missed; I wrote about travel; I wrote about my fears. I read more than I wrote. Literature connected me to worlds outside the hospital and away from times plagued by viruses that were not yet understood. Healing and writing alike had an inherent healing quality.

It would be dishonest to say that fellowship has been easy. There have been challenges (some anticipated, and some that have surprised me) and throughout all of them, I have made an effort to write. These pieces and scraps of pieces have been hidden away in notebooks and tossed into my nightstand. I was nervous to share my work.

I submitted a short story pitch, on a whim, to a call I spotted on X (formerly & superiorly known as Twitter) as a first year fellow. Today, I am happy to share that the short story, inspired by events in medical school, is published in a collection entitled The Perfect Doctor: forty voices on the imperfect pursuit of an ideal.

There is more information about the collection and how to purchase available here. I’d love to hear what you think. Thank you (as always) for reading.