Our Various "Families"

I'm in Florida today, speaking at the Florida Medical Directors Association Annual Meeting.  I haven't given my talk yet, but the meeting as already been worth it.  I've been a Geriatrician for the past thirty years, and during that time I've made a lot of good friends.  We share a common bond, insofar as we've dedicated our professional lives to improving the health and wellbeing of older adults.  It always brings about good feelings when you get to spend time with kindred spirits.  This is always one of the experiences that serves to get me inspired or fired up even more than I already am about the thing I'm most passionate about.  The importance of having a "family" of people who share what matters to you is really important.

One of my challenges, is when I come into contact with others who share my passion and commitment, it does tend to energize the workaholic in me.  I want to do things.  I want to help others do things. Etc., etc..  I admit, I was always one of those kids in school with my hand raised, wanting to answer a question.  I'm not a lot different in "real life." Seeing old friends and colleagues pushes that button.

It's interesting that I used the word "family" to describe the people I saw today.  We all have different families in our lives.  Obviously, we have our immediate family, and extended families to varying degrees.  But we also make new families in our work and extracurricular lives.  I feel like I have a triathlon family.  I can easily get lost in talking about running, biking and swimming with these folks.  I feel at home in some ways with my triathlon family.  I definitely have my Geriatrics family.  These are the people that I saw today.  We are comfortable talking about anything Geriatrics related.  It's always fun to hear similar refrains and responses.

Our different "families" give us different feelings and inspire different reactions.  My professional family makes me want to do things in that world.  To some degree, that gets my cortisol going, which can be helpful, especially when it's time for me to give my talk today.  On the other hand, that cortisol surge has other physiologic manifestations.  My triathlon family inspires me to exercise.  Enough said.  My immediate family makes me feel love and happiness.  Those are good things.