I come by many things in my life naturally — my stubbornness, my red hair, and my career. I am very fortunate. Unlike many I am the daughter of a female emergency physician. This is something I never really considered while growing up. Yes, my mom was a doctor. Did she save lives? I guess so. She didn’t spend much time talking about life outside of the home, and she was still present for many holidays, birthdays, etc. All I knew was that someday I too would be a doctor. When I refused to set foot in the ED (where she worked and I had visited many times) she simply brought the supplies home to repair my lacerated chin. When I had a fever and abdominal pain, I recall the look in her eyes when she recognized my appendicitis. But, that was life in our home. She did not bat an eye when we injured ourselves, because, she’d seen worse. After attending an all-female high school, she went on to join the first class at Loyola College of Maryland (now Loyola University) to allow women, attended University of Maryland for medical school, and ultimately became board certified in Emergency medicine, which was not an available residency when she trained.
My mother is the product of a woman who supported her throughout her life. My maternal grandmother, a homemaker, raised eight children (1 female), but fervently supported their pursuit of happiness. She encouraged each child to enter the field of his or her choosing, and so they did. When I announced that I too wanted to be a physician, she talked of helping soldiers and her great desire to have had a similar opportunity in her day. My paternal grandmother was similar. Before raising her seven children, she coached one of the first female teams to play at Boston Gardens. She too wanted whatever her children wanted. These women, though local in their impact, are the foundations of how I felt comfortable choosing my path.
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