This Won't Hurt A Bit

   Ever since I got the "save the date" way back in July, I have been extremely excited for one of my favorite bloggers (and author of This Won't Hurt A Bit), Dr. Michelle Au, to visit my school.  She gave two separate talks, both having to do with work-life balance in medicine, and the different expectations that are put on physicians (and trainees) by society, tradition, and ourselves.  One of my favorite things she said was, "To train humanistic doctors, you have to treat them like humans."  I feel lucky that my med school seems to share the same thought.   

   My roommate (who is also a fan) wasn't able to go, so I brought her copy of This Won't Hurt A Bit for Michelle Au to sign.  Sadly, I do not own the book, so instead, I decided to make a (somewhat creepy, I admit) bookmark for her to sign.  Hey, what could I do?! I am a fan, and I knew this would be my only opportunity to meet her, so I had to be creative... She didn't seem to be too weirded out, so that's a plus!

   One of the things she mentioned about in her talks was the importance of finding mentorship, especially for women in medicine, who are sometimes faced with obstacles that men in medicine don't necessarily face.  Though I have met a lot of really inspirational women in medicine in my journey so far, I haven't really gotten the privilege to get to know of any of them on a really personal level - which brings me to why I love Michelle Au's blog and book so much.  I feel like they really give me insight into what life outside of the hospital is like for a female physician, which I otherwise wouldn't know all that much about.  Though I only met her for a brief moment today, her honesty and candor in her writing make me feel like I know her on a more personal level, and I can say that she is definitely someone I look up to in medicine.  I absolutely love the fact that even though she is a physician, not only does she still blog, but she even wrote a book!  I would have never even considered being able to do something like that as a physician, but now I have actually made it a goal of mine to write a book sometime in my life.  

   On a more personal level, I was always unsure about whether I could ever see myself having children.  I'll admit, I used to have a really narrow idea in my mind of what being a mother would be like, and in my mind, it just didn't fit my idea of what kind of woman I wanted to be.  But after reading This Won't Hurt A Bit, I feel like Michelle Au painted a really good picture of what type of mom I could see myself being.  So, you can see why I am a fan.