Anonymous Answer

When Roe. v. Wade was overturned, I was rotating at a hospital made up of an extremely conservative staff, all levels included. I found myself at odds with nearly every person on the L&D floor, besides one nurse who somewhat understood my viewpoint. I found my body boiling, the sensations that come when anger heats up inside me. I could have had an emotional outburst, but I managed to summon my emotional intelligence and listen, watch, and learn rather than damage potential relationships by angrily stating my opinion. I did make a comment about the dramatic variances in socioeconomic levels throughout the country and the effect this could have on access to abortion. It felt satisfying to maintain my cool, knowing my emotions were high, and to allow that to be fuel to go do further research in order to have more informed, rational, and constructive conversations about the issue in the future.

Anonymous Answer

During my first year of medical school, we had a friend group that had an appointment for anatomy tutoring. One of the students had changed the appointment on purpose through email and did not notify the other members of the group so that she could have a one-on-one meeting with the professor. Our friendship suffered and I did not talk to her much anymore until we were made partners for another lab the following year. I decided to let go of our past and help her even beyond the lab we were in, for the sake of our future patients and the profession. I realized we are both going to be doctors one day and we owed it to our patients to help each other learn and grow. We are now friends again, and she even gave my son gifts when he was three years old.