It has been one of life's great pleasures blogging for you, dear reader, over the past five plus years. It feels like we've grown up together.
When I started out, I was a zealous convert waxing poetic about the virtues of managing your own portfolio and enthusiastically sharing financial literacy lessons I'd never learned in residency.
I wanted so deeply for you to do better than I'd done:
- Carve out protected space for passions and people you cared about that were safe from the encroachment of your obligations to medicine.
- Practice clinically because you wanted to, not because you had no better alternative.
- Achieve financial independence early, so you could make career choices from a position of strength.
- Identify those aspects of work that were most satisfying and reorient your career to do more of those activities.
There was a lot of talk about reordering priorities and protecting time from the erosive intrusions of a medical career.
We've come a long way. My kids are far from strangers.
My son plays alongside me with a group of 40-50 year old dads in our weekly virtual strategy game night.
My daughter and I spent countless hours over the past year and change on social studies and science lessons - while to my relief the only dating she's done is carbon dating exercises with me, I anticipate that this, too, will change.
As I look over more recent posts, my focus has shifted. I started out struggling how to make more time for my family. I proceeded to change the institutions I belonged to (my physician group) gradually from within, using policy corrections that enabled my colleagues and I to enjoy greater flexibility in our careers.
I am undoubtedly more fit today than I was when I started this blog.
I sleep more soundly (without the need for a benadryl nightcap).
My wife and I have the opportunity to connect daily, and we continue to grow together. We make a formidable team.
My kids are older and more independent. They need me in different ways, at different times, on different days and for different durations than they used to.
During the week, their afternoons are spent on homework, sports, extracurriculars and with friends. Weekends are now the best opportunity for us to connect. This is natural and age-appropriate, but it has left me with more time on my hands during the week.
With the kids having developed competence and momentum, more head space was available for me to think through what I'd hoped my second act might look like.
I turned my plank into a runway, which held my career in clinical medicine aloft in a slow glide until it ran completely out of fuel.
Serendipity and persistence led to an unexpected job offer for an administrative position at the precise moment when I was ready to leave clinical medicine.
My new position will help to fill that weekday time formerly occupied by the kids, hopefully in a manner that provides sufficient flexibility to remain present when they need me - as tutor, chauffeur and gofer.
With the pandemic having once more proven life fragile and fleeting, I am savoring this moment.
We've accompanied one another as we reclaimed our time, found our mojo, and raised our overall financial literacy.
The fact that this blog spends very little time these days discussing the basics of finance is a testament to how the latter topic, when tended to regularly, eventually takes care of itself.
My latest career choice is guided by intellectual curiosity more than economic necessity - an exciting milestone to have reached.
As I embark on this second act, kids unfurling their wings, brainstorming with my wife what our empty nest years might promise, it seems the perfect time to take a year-long break from blogging.
I look forward to this sabbatical to recharge, explore new interests, and course-correct as I go.
If there are particular highs or lows that I suspect you might find beneficial to your own journey, I might drop a post about it, but for the most part I intend to redirect the energy I've invested in the blog.
This will constitute my final post for 2021.
I cannot thank you enough for the kind words, vulnerable moments and genuine warmth you have offered me over the years.
Fondly,
CD
Comments 15
Wow, good for you! You will be missed, of course, but I am sure your readers understand 😊
Author
Mrs. T,
I promise I won’t pass by an A-Team poster without some part of me wanting to share it with you, my fellow 1980s kitsch aficionado. I watched “Sixteen Candles” with my daughter this weekend, and imagiend you might also have the dialogue largely committed to memory.
Thanks for your support and sympathy for my nostalgia over the years,
CD
I always looked forward to your new posts and insightful commentary. Will miss your blog but wish you the best in this new adventure.
Author
GasFIRE,
I’m grateful to you. From your contribution to the blog via your Docs Who Cut Back interview to the thoughtful comments that created a dialogue, you have made the past five years a personally rewarding experience.
Thanks for being a friend,
CD
Smart Move. Even sleepy little blogs with multiple scheduled postings require care and attention to remain fresh, otherwise the creative energy becomes cookie cutter and fast food like. It’s not hard to run out of things to say.
Life is about doing “something”, discovering a path and following the discovery. It’s really not about central planning. From my vantage you’ve matured greatly as a husband, father and physician. like they say about puppies with big feet, they grow into them. The amazing thing about America is you can be whatever or whomever you want to be. Enjoy your being.
Author
Thanks, Gasem.
You’ve been very forgiving as this pup peed on furniture and stumbled his way through this blog.
Central planning works as well in life as it did in Soviet industrial production – not at all.
When happy accidents occur to someone inquisitive, they make all the difference.
With gratitude,
CD
Congrats CD. I’ve been very impressed by what you’ve delivered over the years in this blog, and have really enjoyed all the stories and lessons. Best of luck in the next phase. And enjoy that Fat FIRE!!
Good for you!!
Been fun reading along your journey 🙂
Author
Thanks for delivering my first “attaboy” back in the day, J. It meant a lot, and I recall feeling buzzed after you featured me.
Appreciate you,
CD
As a longtime reader, I just want to say thank you. Your writing has always been eloquent, insightful and honest. I’ve been largely following your trajectory in tandem during my career, and greatly appreciate your musings along the way. I wish you the best of luck, and look forward to finding my own next step soon.
Author
Hey RADFI,
That’s the most generous feedback I could have hoped for – thank you. My contact info is on the site, and should you ever find yourself in my neck of the woods, I’ll buy you a beer (I’ll even offer a pitcher, but I’m a lightweight so the caveat is you’ll have to finish most of it).
If you’d like to share more about your own career trajectory in the Docs Who Cut Back series, let me know and I’ll send you the interview questions!
Keep me posted as to your next step and where it leads.
Fondly,
CD
Don’t be a stranger!!
Author
Thanks Dawn. Think of me as gum you stepped in that refuses to come off of your shoe, try as you might. You are saddled with my friendship for good.
Thanks for your amazing posts over the years! They have helped this doc more than you will ever know! I will definitely miss your perspective but am excited for your next adventure. All the best.
Author
Hey Dr. K,
So grateful that the posts resonated. Wishing you the success that comes with balance, financial security, and control of your time.
Fondly,
CD