I want to be a Simba chippie. Oh wait, that’s not it- I want to be a professor!

 If you had asked me about an academic career 3 years ago, I would have laughed in your face.  I had always conceptualised academia to be all about labs and test-tubes.  I had never really contemplated the human element- that peoples’ life experiences could also be researched.  Imagine my delight when I discovered that, in medical education journals, people were actually quoted. About their feelings. Nary a centrifuge in sight! Well. For the first time, I was thrilled at the possibility of doing research that I could really enjoy; research that could celebrate creativity and lateral thinking. It blew my mind.  So, also for the first time, I thought that hey, maybe I could be Prof. Gordon one day. By studying ways to inspire students; to teach them in fun and novel ways. To find ways of getting them to really absorb the fact that patients are people, with lives, children, emotions- not just a liver in bed number 2. And that other people might be interested in what I have to say/ what I do.

I have also realised that I could actually do it.  For the first time, I have put self-doubt in an old shoebox, in the furthest corner of the top of the cupboard, where it can get all cobwebby and dust-crusted. I have no idea how long it could take; how it actually works; how much work is involved, but I am ready for the challenge.  Something fundamental has shifted.

I am fortunate in that I have the most amazing cadre of cheerleaders behind me.  This is how I know I can do it.  Foremost among these has been my dad, who has always predicted successes that I would achieve, without me ever having similar inklings.  He has the most unwavering, (naturally biased) faith in what I can achieve.  So Daddy, this goal is partly for you. Naturally, my adoring and adorable husband is as firmly in the Chivaugn camp as I am in the Adalbert camp.  He is also awakening to the fact that he is capable of sublime success (ok he’s not quite there, but I certainly know this about him), in what he really loves, which is not medicine. So look out world- here comes a flurry of activity in 10 Livingstone Road!