AFI ... So, I started running marathons ....

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
~Winston Churchill

There is a fire inside (AFI) of me that I can not stop. I don't know when it started. Maybe it was when I was little and I was smaller than most of my friends or maybe it was when my dad said I wasn't going to be good at something. I really can put my finger on it. Whatever it was that started it really doesn't matter; what matters is that that fire still exists to this day, and I don't ever think I want it to stop. You may ask, "what is this fire?" AFI is a burning desire inside of you to do SOMETHING. It is to be driven to complete a task or feet, to compete, to improve.

For me, it was definitely there in high school. I was always looking for the next fix. A task to complete. Sports, school events/clubs/committes, and music, I was involved in them all. What My reward, college. In college, I gave up sports for my son, work, and completing school. My reward, medical school. Feed the beast and it grows. You get the picture. I always had an end, a reward, somthing I was working towards. Now, end game, I am an orthopaedic surgeon. How do you stop the fire from burning? Do I want it to stop?

I started to run marathons after a dare to run a half marathon. Now my fire has been satisfied, for now.

"Sacrifice Theory"

I offer grace, I offer blood.
I offer everything till my heart is crystal clear.
I offer grace,I offer blood.
I offer everything till my heart is crystal clear.

Let me taste the life flow.
Do you want to feel the warmth?
To taste the life, to taste the lifeI want to taste the life.
To taste the life, to taste the life flow.
Go, Go, Woah, Go

~AFI

When I am looking at my residents and resident applicants, I think to myself, do they have a fire burning? What drives them? Do they desire to be better or are they satisfied? I ask you all, what drives you? Do you know? Obviously, if you are in medical school or a resident, you must have the desire. Will it be sustained?

I look back and wonder why I didn't quit. It was a hard and long road. I could have just gotten a job somewhere doing something. But, would I be satisfied? Well, I am not sure. For now the fire still burns, so I run marathons.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

~John Quincy Adams