Dear Grads and Dear Interns,

In my first few months of practice I cared for a patient who was terrified and traumatized by a history with difficult IV placements. Got it on the first stick. Felt AMAZING. Then I walked away and tripped over the tubing and pulled it out.

Patience, humility, grace, kindness and vulnerability have been the greatest and most hard won lessons of my life. This includes being gentle with myself.

Medicine requires vast amount of training, education and experience ultimately manage the most human things. Fear, sadness, vulnerability, hope, curiosity, kindness, health, life itself. We are all human. If you hold onto that, you will soar.

You are here. And you deserve it. And you will get “there”. And when you do, you will still learn every day. And that is why we are so lucky to do this. There is no limit to being better at this in every single way. And you are enough.