Last year we added two new partners to our group. It is good that our practice is growing and there’s now ten of us Pulmonary and Critical Care doctors in our team.
The downside to this growth is that our limited office space can barely accommodate our expansion. Storage spaces and closets have been turned into patient’s examination rooms. The other thing that has to give is our personal spaces. Before each one of us have an office room, but now it was converted into one large room that we share together. Though we still have our own desk and a corner or side of the room where we hang our diplomas and personal photos or mementos.
We now also have a common book shelf that we share where we placed our valued textbooks even though they are outdated. As you know, a medical textbook is only good for a couple of years, like our smartphones, as new and revised version comes out every so often with updates of the latest studies and findings.
Many of the books here in the shelf were published more than a decade ago, and thus they are obsolete and are only good for showcase. Note how thick and heavy many of these books. I can’t avow though that we read them from cover to cover. But perhaps just displaying them make us feel confident and smart.
From “Medical Dictionary,” to basic science “Lung Cell Biology,” and to our specialty’s bible “Textbook of Respiratory Medicine,” I can say that at some point in time I referred to these books.
But there’s one book in the shelf that caught my attention recently, as it may be out-of-place. It is not my book, and I dare not ask whose book it is among my partners.
Did you spot the book?
In case you still not sure what book I’m referring to, I pulled it off the book shelf and here it is:
Perhaps it’s a book of one of the young children of my partners. Perhaps a partner of mine reads this book for relaxation. Or perhaps this book is an inspiration or has a special meaning for one of them. After all, considering where we came from and where we are now in our state of life, it is a realization of “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” And as a transplant from a foreign land, this really rings true for me.
Here’s an excerpt from the book:
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go.
Maybe it really belongs to this shelf among other medical books. Besides, this book is also authored by some famous doctor. Dr. Seuss, that is.
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Post Note: “Oh the Places You’ll Go” was first published in 1990, and the last book published by the author in his lifetime. Even though Dr. Seuss is well-known as children’s book author and illustrator, this particular book is a popular gift for students graduating from high school and even college.
(*photos taken with an iPhone)
