Yesterday was my birthday. A lot has happened this past month, but I wanted to talk about something that has been on my mind
I love vacation. I’m the type of person to enjoy doing nothing. After a long semester, give me some time to literally turn off my brain and do literally nothing. Taking time off is great for your mental health, but for me, there came a point where I took too much time off. I started to think about my life and my career path. Do I really want to spend the rest of my life seeing patients? What’s the point really?
A few weeks back, I took a trip to St. Louis for the annual Optometry’s Meeting. I did some sightseeing, which you can check out in my last post here. At the conference, I met other student doctors from different schools across the country. I sat in seminars and had leading optometrists explain how they practice and how they see the future of our profession. It was eye opening, pun intended.
Our keynote speaker for the convention was Johnny Cupcakes, founder of the retail company with the same name. He spoke about how he started and failed at multiple business endeavors when he was younger, which ultimately landed him where he is now. His talk wasn’t so much about business (and absolutely nothing about optometry) – but it was more of creativity and trail-blazing in order to be different and successful.
In the middle of his talk, he mentioned some details about his family life that I think was a bit ad-libbed. He was referring to how he was starting a new chapter in his life, slightly away from his business. He said, “when you like life more than work, you work better at work.” He said it so quickly and in a fervor I wasn’t sure I heard it right, but I wrote it down nonetheless. It stuck with me. Sometimes I’d love to hang up the white coat and pursue something different or rearrange my priorities. But in the end, taking that bit of a break is necessary to be an even better doctor.
I explored. I learned. And most importantly, I became re-inspired. This convention was one of the reasons why I do what I do. Being an eye doctor is being a part of a small, nationwide team. We are all fighting the same fights and learning to be the best health care professionals we can be. And I’d love to be a part of it.
Tomorrow I go back to clinic. And I can’t wait.
Andy Chen Photography 